Recruitment

UHM departments or units need to follow Equal Employment Opportunity standards during the process of recruiting and hiring graduate assistants. In general, GA position vacancies shall be advertised through Work at UH and other suitable media. For positions restricted to students enrolled in a particular graduate program, it is sufficient to announce vacancies on the bulletin board or in the newsletter of the affiliated department. For positions restricted to incoming graduate students, it is sufficient to review and evaluate all admissions applicants who meet the stated eligibility, before making an official offer of appointment.

Appointment

Upon Graduate Division approval where necessary, the department or unit makes an official offer of appointment to the student applicant via a formal letter. The letter shall provide the following information:

  • exact dates of appointment
  • estimated work load
  • types of duties
  • procedure for performance evaluation
  • name of faculty supervisor
  • amount of compensation
  • tuition waiver and other benefits
  • deadline for acceptance

Acceptance of Appointment

To accept an offer of an appointment, the student shall send a letter to the chair or director. The Graduate Division adheres to the following resolution approved by the Council of Graduate Schools regarding the acceptance of assistantships:

Acceptance of an offer of financial support (such as a graduate scholarship, fellowship, traineeship, or assistantship) for the next academic year by a prospective or enrolled graduate student completes an agreement that both student and graduate school expect to honor. In that context, the conditions affecting such offers and their acceptance must be defined carefully and understood by all parties.

Students are under no obligation to respond to offers of financial support prior to April 15; earlier deadlines for acceptance of such offers violate the intent of this Resolution. There has been a change in our process for students who want to withdraw from an offer of acceptance of financial support, starting with Fall 2020 admissions.  In this case, the applicant must first inform the program that they are withdrawing or resigning from the offer of financial support that they previously had accepted.  Starting in Fall 2020, applicants are no longer required to obtain a formal release from the program whose offer they accepted, either before or after the April 15 deadline. Once they have informed the program that they are withdrawing their acceptance of the offer, they then can accept any other offers.

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