Assistantship Policy

Graduate students in the Department of Communications can qualify for an assistantship to help them in funding their education. An assistantship is essentially a job working as a research or teaching assistant for department faculty. The goal of the assistantship is for graduate students to ‘assist’ faculty members in fulfilling their research and teaching obligations.

Research assistants, for example, find, gather, analyze and summarize research for professors. The graduate student’s role could consist of collecting articles, running experiments, and imputing data. In some cases, graduate students contribute enough research and writing to constitute serving as co-author of the research. IN other cases, the contribution may not rise to the level of co-author. The determination of co-authorship would depend upon making a significant contribution in terms of development, writing, analysis, and completion of project. Since the student is receiving pay from the department to support the professor, it would be up to the professor to determine the order of authorship on a conference paper or journal article.

Teaching assistants may serve as lab instructors for large lecture classes, such as introduction to news writing. Others may serve in the professional labs such as the newspaper, television news show, public relations agency, or advertising labs. They could teach undergraduate courses if they have the requisite educational and professional experience. Assistants also may hold office hours and assist in tutoring students. In some cases, graduate students hold office hours and work with students on an individual basis. Every year about 15 assistantships are awarded to first-and second –year graduate students in the Department of Communications. These assistantships range from a minimum of five hours to a maximum of twenty hours. As a general rule, since the first semester is considered the most difficult, first-year students are assigned ten to fifteen hours for their assistantship. This limit is aimed at allowing students enough time to acclimate to graduate life, learn research strategies, and complete required courses in research and theory. The number of hours can be adjusted upward in subsequent semesters.

At twenty hours a week, graduate students can make up to $10,400 in their first year and $10,800 in their second year. They school year is defined as fall and winter semesters. Research assistantships are generally unavailable during spring and summer terms but some teaching assistants are available as Comms. 211 lab instructors.

To apply for an assistantship please fill out the assistantship application form available in the Communication Department office found at 360 Brimhall Building.

Assistantship Policy

Communications

Graduate Programs