Revised by RCB Faculty Affairs Committee 2-12-01

B(3)

ROBINSON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
DOCTORAL COORDINATORS, RECRUITING DOCTORAL STUDENTS,
AND ALLOCATION OF STATE-FUNDED DOCTORAL GRA
BUDGET FOR A TARGET FISCAL YEAR

The purpose for this document is to specify guidelines for the process of the recruitment of doctoral students and the allocation of the state-funded doctoral Graduate Research Assistantship budget (GRA budget) among the individual doctoral programs, which are housed within academic units (UNITS) in the J. Mack Robinson College of Business.

OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DOCTORAL PROGRAMS

One function of the Office of Research and Doctoral Programs is to assist the faculty in their recruitment of doctoral students. The office is responsible for all phases of the application process, including: assisting with recruitment; mailing out applications; corresponding with prospective students; processing applications received; and maintaining computerized records. Funding for prospective student visits is coordinated through the Office of Research and Doctoral Programs Office. Beyond these roles, the management philosophy of the Office of Research and Doctoral Programs is to decentralize as much decision-making authority as possible to the Doctoral Coordinators and the academic units.

RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE DOCTORAL COORDINATOR

The position of Doctoral Coordinator is that of a program manager. The Doctoral Coordinator is typically appointed by the head of the UNIT. The position is responsible and accountable to the faculty of the UNIT for the management of the doctoral students in that program area. This managerial responsibility begins with an initial inquiry from a prospective applicant and continues through the dissertation stage of the student's program and graduation. The Doctoral Coordinator, in concert with the chair and other relevant faculty in the UNIT, prepares an annual recruiting plan, decides which prospective applicants will be admitted for its program(s), the compensation package which will be offered to first-year and beyond-first-year students, the student's role as a GRA or GTA throughout his/her academic study, and the program of study for the student. The Doctoral Coordinator also manages the state funding allocated to the program. The coordinator also monitors the progress of the student through the program.

DOCTORAL STUDENT RECRUITMENT

The process for recruiting doctoral students is similar to the process for recruiting faculty. Recruitment is decided in light of the available budget resources, the program and research demands of the academic unit, and the strategic objectives of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business. Similarly, the Director of Research and Doctoral Programs will review the status of each doctoral program in deciding the total number of positions for which the doctoral program(s) in each UNIT can recruit for the coming year. These will be known as "slots allocated."

TOTAL STATE-FUNDED GRA BUDGET

The GRA budget will be developed by the Dean and the Associate Dean with budgetary responsibilities during fall semester for the subsequent (target) fiscal year. Some of the information to be considered in determining the budget includes:

• Anticipated new money to be received by the college in the target FY budget.
  
  
• Actual spending levels in previous years for all state-funded GRA spending.
  
  
• GRA stipends for doctoral students hired by the Executive MBA program and the Statistical Services laboratory.
  
  
• The goals and objectives of the doctoral program as specified in the college's ten-year strategic plan.

The budget will be reviewed and approved by the Executive Committee by the end of fall semester. With the exception of an emergency shortfall in the budget for the college, this state-funded GRA budget is to be used fully for the support of the doctoral program. Note: The target FY is the fiscal year ending June 30, including, in sequence, the summer-mesters through the following spring semester and May-mester.

If the college receives unanticipated discretionary resources from the university in the target FY budget, additional funds may be allocated to the GRA budget with the consent of the Executive Committee and Faculty Affairs Committee. The funds will be allocated to the UNITS by the Director of Research and Doctoral Programs in consultation with the Doctoral Assistantship Committee (DAC) and/or the entire group of doctoral coordinators.

The total state-funded GRA budget includes components for entering or first-year students and for beyond-first-year students. Note: This document does not address the determination of GRA budgets for the EMBA program and the Statistical Services Laboratory (SSL). Moreover, the SSL GRA budget can represent a significant form of compensation for advanced doctoral students. All doctoral students are to be made aware of this compensation opportunity. The Director of the SSL will announce all openings for employment to all of the doctoral students and Doctoral Coordinators throughout the College. Further, the Director of the SSL will make a report to the Director of Research and Doctoral Programs at the end of each academic year regarding the employment of doctoral students.

Recruiting Plans of Academic Units

The Doctoral Coordinator, in consultation with other faculty in the academic unit, is required to submit to the Director of Research and Doctoral Programs during the fall term a plan of doctoral activity for the target fiscal year. Elements of the plan should include, at a minimum, the following short discussion items:

• Optimum enrollment/recruiting goals.
  
  
• Current student progress - stage of degree completion of current students in the academic unit.
  
  
• Placement of recent graduates and anticipated student graduation in the upcoming year.
  
  
• Evidence of demand for graduates of the program.
  
  
• Student-to-graduate faculty ratio.
  
  
• Willingness of the faculty in the academic unit to participate in doctoral education.
  
  
• Faculty research efforts as measured primarily in the number of publications.
  
  
• Student research as measured by articles submitted to journals and papers submitted/accepted for academic meetings.

The Director of Research and Doctoral Programs will review the status of each doctoral program in light of these suggested criteria contained in the Doctoral Coordinator's written plan plus the College's ten-year strategic plan. Based on this information, the Director will determine the slots allocated for which UNITS can recruit for the target year and will inform the Doctoral Coordinators during the early part of the spring semester prior to the March 1 application deadline. See the section below entitled "Recruitment Above the Entrance Maximum" for more information on slots allocated.

BUDGET ALLOCATION

Three budgets will be issued by the Director of Research and Doctoral Programs. These are:

• Pre-Admission Budget (#1) (issued anytime before the March 1st application deadline)
  
  
• Post-Acceptance Budget (#2) (issued after all acceptances have been processed and stabilized, usually by May)
  
  
• Post-Matriculation Budget (#3) (issued after students have registered for fall classes and attritted students have been accounted for)

Budgets are divided into: (a) first-year budget and (b) beyond-first-year budget. Approximately thirty percent of the College's GRA budget will be allocated to new students (first-year budget). This will be distributed to the individual doctoral programs on a proportional basis. For example, in the Pre-Admission budget, if a doctoral program has been allocated 11% of the entire allotment of new students ("slots allocated"), then 11% of the first year budget will also be allocated to this program. The only exceptions to this allocation will be in special circumstances where slots have been allocated to a doctoral program, but it has been agreed by all relevant parties that that the UNIT will self-fund these students. These students will be termed "UNIT self-funded" students.

All three budgets will allocate GRA funding to the first-year budget in the same manner. The final budget will be based strictly on the number of students who have matriculated in the program, and who do not leave the program within the first few weeks.

Budgetary Role of Doctoral Assistantship Committee (DAC)

The DAC is an ad hoc committee comprised of the Director of Research and Doctoral Programs, three Doctoral Coordinators, and the Associate Director of Research and Doctoral Programs, who serves a non-voting, administrative support function. One Doctoral Coordinator will be rotated off the ad hoc committee each year and replaced by another Doctoral Coordinator, while two coordinators will remain to provide continuity and consistency in the decision-making process. The Director of Research and Doctoral Programs will chair this ad hoc committee.

Ceiling Amounts

The primary function of the DAC is to establish funding levels for applicants during her/his beyond-first-year semesters in the program. The allocation of the beyond-first-year budget to students within programs is based on the concept of "ceiling amounts." This is the amount of state-funded GRA support used in calculating beyond-first-year budgets for individual doctoral programs. The DAC will meet to determine all ceiling amounts for the college, preferably at one meeting during mid-March. Students who have been designated as "UNIT self-funded" will be assigned a ceiling amount of $0.

Recruitment Above the Entrance Maximum

Doctoral Coordinators may accept up to 50 percent more students than the slots allocated for which their program has received authorization. In these cases, the initial allocation of the first-year budget likely will not be sufficient to provide 100% funding. UNITs will determine how and at what level they wish to fund first-year students. Offers to new students and total compensation for beyond-first-year students are capped at $22,000 per year.

Offer Letters

The offer letter can contain multi-year compensation commitment subject to the approval of the Director of Research and Doctoral Programs and the Associate Dean with budgetary responsibility. For these prospective students, no commitments can be made beyond the first year with respect to the amount of state-funded doctoral GRA assistantships to be received. But, at the discretion of the departments, multi-year commitments can be made in terms of total compensation.

Applicants will be asked to respond within fifteen days to the doctoral programs office with their decision to accept or decline the admission and (in most cases) assistantship offer.

Waiting List Applicants

Because less than 100% of the accepted applicants are expected to accept offers of admission, UNITS are encouraged to designate a number of applicants for a waiting list. These applicants will only receive an acceptance letter if one of the UNIT's first-choice applicants declines the offer of admission, and number of acceptances is reasonably close to the entrance maximum number of the UNIT.

Once an applicant has been sent a letter of denial by the college, the applicant subsequently may not be offered admission for that year, even if none of the initially approved applicants accept offers of admission.

Adjusted Ceiling Amounts

No student admitted prior to fall semester five years earlier will be considered in the base for allocating the state-funded GRA budget. In other words, the ceiling amount base is adjusted to $0 regardless of this student's remaining semesters of GRA eligibility.

Allocation of Budget among Academic Units

The ceiling amounts for all students beyond-the-first year will be summed for each doctoral program. The proportion that the sum of a doctoral program is to the sum of all doctoral programs combined will be the proportion of the total beyond-first-year state-funded GRA budget allocated to that doctoral program. The Doctoral Coordinators may allocate state-funded GRA stipends (subject to their own budget constraints) to beyond first-year students which exceed the ceiling amounts established at the time the student entered the program if the student's performance warrants such a reward.

ALLOCATION OF THE DOCTORAL BUDGET WITHIN UNITS

The allocation of the first-year budget within units needs to consider that offer letters include consideration of two semesters and the May-mester beginning with the fall semester of the student's entrance into the program. Thus the fourth term in the offer letter is summer-mester, which is the first term in the subsequent fiscal year.

UNIT DOCTORAL BUDGET

The total of the first-year allocation and the beyond-first-year allocation will be distributed to each UNIT for each doctoral program in that UNIT as a total lump sum budget. Remember, the summer-mester term awards allocation for first-year students must be funded from the beyond-first-year budget in the subsequent year.

CALENDAR OF EVENTS

APPENDIX

GENERAL CRITERIA FOR APPOINTMENT AS A GRA OR GTA

The following criteria must be met by any doctoral student in order to be appointed as a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA III, GRA II or GRA I), and either state-funded or externally-funded research assistantship or Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA).

Academic Standing

A doctoral student must have a 3.0 or higher cumulative grade point average after the second consecutive calendar semester, beginning with the initial semester of enrollment in the doctoral program. (See the section of the J. Mack Robinson College of Business' Graduate Bulletin titled "Scholastic Warning and Termination" for definition of cumulative grade point average). Furthermore, a doctoral student must be making normal progress toward the degree requirements.

Satisfactory Performance

For a doctoral student to continue to be hired as a Graduate Research Assistant, a satisfactory overall evaluation on the College-wide GRA evaluation form is required. A doctoral student who receives an unsatisfactory overall evaluation during one term may be employed as a GRA, on warning, in a subsequent term. However, a doctoral student who receives an unsatisfactory overall evaluation in two consecutive terms of employment as a GRA may not be hired as a GRA for at least two subsequent terms. This evaluation form is completed by the faculty member to whom a doctoral student is assigned as a GRA to work on research-related projects of the faculty member and/or the student. The commitment of time as a GRA (i.e., the amount of GRA stipend(s) received during the term) will be considered in evaluating GRA performance.

With respect to doctoral students hired as Graduate Teaching Assistants, continued employment as a GTA is contingent on satisfactory evaluations from students and faculty teaching supervisors.

Minimum Hours of Enrollment

A doctoral student hired as a GRA or GTA and in accordance with the continuous registration requirement is expected to be enrolled for at least 9 hours of coursework on the student's program of study during a regular semester (one of the two academic year semesters of Fall and Spring) and 3 hours of course work during a summer term.

Outside Employment

Employment as a GRA requires a commitment of 10 hours per week per stipend during the class weeks of a term. Employment as a GTA requires a similar time commitment. Thus, the time devoted to coursework plus being a GTA or GRA is expected to be essentially full-time. Accordingly, a doctoral student who is employed as a GRA or GTA should not be engaged in any other significant form of employment. Each student hired as a GRA or GTA will be expected to sign a certification letter for their Doctoral Coordinator to the effect that the student is not otherwise employed or to state the specific employment and time commitment with respect to existing outside employment. This certification form is subject to approval by the chairman or director of the doctoral student's academic UNIT and the Director of Research and Doctoral Programs.

Maximum Number of Semesters of Employment as a GRA From State-Funded Source

The maximum number of semesters that a doctoral student normally can be employed as a GRA from state-funded sources is eight regular semesters, excluding summer terms. This maximum number of semesters of GRA employment applies only to state-funded GRA stipends. Externally-funded graduate research assistantship are excluded from this consideration. For example, a student supported solely by external grants for two semesters, thus, would have ten elapsed semesters to receive GRA state funding.

Maximum Number of Stipends per Semester

The sum of state-funded plus externally-funded assistantships may not exceed two assistantships per semester, and all assistantships must be at the same level. At least 1.0 stipend must be received from a single appointment (GRA I, GRA II, GRA III, or GTA) in order to receive in-state tuition remission. Waivers may be requested to exceed these limits.

ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS FOR APPOINTMENT AS A GTA

In addition to the general criteria listed in the preceding section, the following requirements must be met to be eligible for appointment as a Graduate Teaching Assistant.

Education/Experience Requirement

To be appointed as a graduate teaching assistant (GTA), a doctoral student must have a master's degree in a discipline related to the field of teaching or have completed graduate coursework in the field related to teaching and/or possess professional certification(s) that are deemed to be the equivalent of a master's degree.

Appointment as GRA and GTA in the Same Semester

Doctoral students hired as a GTA in any semester may also be employed during the same semester as a state-funded GRA.

Communicative Competency Requirement for All Doctoral Students Who Are Non-Native English Speakers

Any doctoral student classified as a non-native English speaker desiring to be considered for an appointment as a GTA for the first time must pass an examination conducted by the Department of English as a Second Language (ESL). This examination is required to insure a minimum prescribed standard of English competency in the classroom.

Based on the examination results, the student will be judged to be either (a) ready for the classroom or (b) needing to take one or more prescribed ESL classes. In the latter case, after satisfactory completion of the designated coursework, the examination must be retaken.

BA 9200 (Seminar in University Teaching) Enrollment Requirements

All doctoral students who are appointed as Graduate Teaching Assistants must take BA 9200 (Seminar in University Teaching) either prior to or during the first or second semester of appointment (teaching). No exceptions will be granted for doctoral students who have prior teaching experience at this or other institutions, since BA 9200 is a course designed to benefit any and all university classroom instructors. If a doctoral student believes that taking BA 9200 during the second semester of teaching as a GTA will result in a significant delay in the timely completion of program of study courses due to the limited offering of a course in conflict with BA 9200, the student's departmental doctoral coordinator can request a deferral through the Director of Doctoral Programs.

This document was originally reviewed and approved by the College's Doctoral Coordinators, Executive Committee, and Faculty Affairs Committee in 1991 and 1999. Revisions to this document will be reviewed and approved by the same three groups.

• Approved by the Doctoral Coordinators on November 7, 2000.
  
  
• Approved by the Executive Committee on January 22, 2001.
  
  
• Approved by the Faculty Affairs Committee on February 12, 2001.

J. MACK ROBINSON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS
GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANT EVALUATION FORM

Name of GRA being evaluated:

Term and Year to which evaluation applies:

Brief description of job duties for term:

Comments:

__________________________________________
Signature of Faculty Member Completing Evaluation

________________
Date

By my signature below, I acknowledge having reviewed this evaluation.

___________________________________________
Signature of Graduate Research Assistant

________________
Date

By my signature below, I understand that I may not engage in any form of employment outside of Georgia State University during any term in which I am employed as a GRA unless prior approval for a specific employment and time commitment is received from both the head of the academic unit in which I am hired as a GRA and the Director of Doctoral Programs.

___________________________________________
Signature of Graduate Research Assistant

____________________
Date