Appendix 16: Partial Fee Remission for Undergraduate Teaching Assistants
Updated: August 4th, 2011
Berkeley: Office of the Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
March 10, 2008
To: Deans, Department Chairs, and Chief Administrative Officers
From: George W. Breslauer, Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost
Re: Partial Fee Remission for Undergraduate Teaching Assistants
Colleagues:
The recent bargaining agreement negotiated between UC and the United Auto Workers (UAW) for Academic Student Employees extended the benefit of partial fee remission to eligible registered undergraduate students. Eligible undergraduate students are those appointed in Teaching Assistant (TA) title codes with appointments totaling 25% or more of full-time for a given semester. Academic departments employing undergraduate TAs must bear the responsibility for funding this expense.
With only minor exceptions, Berkeley is the only campus that employs undergraduate TAs. The largest departmental users of undergraduate TAs were advised during contract negotiations of this proposed provision, and were also informed that they might need to cover the cost. This possibility also was announced at the January 17, 2008 Graduate Advisors’ meeting.
The contract terms became effective for the Spring 2008 semester. Note that the partial fee remission applies only to the University Registration Fee and the Educational Fee. For the 2007-08 academic year, the remission amount for a resident undergraduate TA is $3,318/semester and for a non-resident undergraduate TA is $3,594/semester.
The Spring 2008 undergraduate fee payments initially were handled in the same way as the graduate student fee payments and were credited to the students’ CARS accounts at the beginning of the semester. Though graduate student fee remissions will continue to be charged back to departments in three installments during the semester, the expense for undergraduate student fee remissions will be financially transferred to Departments for Spring 2008. Departments will be charged for the remissions in March for all those students whose fees have been paid up through that date. A second charge will occur in May for any late appointments that may have occurred since March. The undergraduate fee remissions, which appear as employee benefit costs on departmental ledgers, will not be covered by central campus benefits allocations.
Beginning with the Fall 2008 semester, departments will need to pay the fees for the undergraduate students directly through the Departmental Student Award System (DSAS). Departments will need to process these fee payments at the beginning of the semester to ensure the terms of the bargaining agreement are met. Late payment could trigger grievances to which the department would have to respond. Instructions on how to use the DSAS system for fee remissions will be circulated prior to the beginning of Fall semester.
cc: Chancellor Birgeneau
Vice Chancellor Brostrom
Dean Szeri
Associate Vice Chancellor Jenny
Associate Vice Chancellor Ellis
See All Topics in the Category: Appointments Appendices, Guide to Graduate Policy
