Statement of Academic Eligibility for Graduate Assistantships
(SAEF Form)

STATEMENT OF ACADEMIC ELIGIBILITY FOR RESEARCH ASSISTANTSHIP

• Students must re-apply each semester for assistantship. It does not automatically carry forward.
• Students cannot receive an assistantship if the research department is unwilling to pay the stipend portion of the assistantship.
• Please allow up to 15 business days for OSA to process request.
• To ensure that the employing department has adequate time to establish your appointment, you should plan to have this packet of documents approved a month prior to the hire starting date.

Students receiving tuition waivers must be employed in the assistantship no less than 91 days during the University semester, not the COM semester. This 91 day requirement will then determine a deadline for which application must be processed by the University to ensure receipt of waiver.

ACTION BY STUDENT:

1. A Statement of Academic Eligibility for Graduate Assistantships (SAEF Form) should be submitted for each semester. Download the form, save it on your computer, and print out copies as needed, or pick up a form at the Office of Student Affairs. As soon as your employment is offered or renewed, begin step two. .
2. Complete Part I thoroughly and attach letter to the Dean. Part I of the form requests that the student write a letter to the Associate Dean for Student Affairs. The letter should indicate the request for consideration of an appointment to a graduate assistantship position with the following criteria:
   • Request for approval of graduate assistantship position for which semester, and under which tuition waiver policy for which eligible (research or teaching experience prior to or after Fall semester 1996);
   • Laboratory, course instructor, or other offices with whom the student will be working;
   • The specific project or teaching role the student will be working in;
   • The specific role in the specific project that qualifies you for a waiver:
     • Your role in designing methodology? (i.e., what specifically you do, versus what the team will do.)
     • Your role in data collection? (i.e., what data, what techniques, what time frame.)
     • Your role in presenting the research? (i.e., writing, the paper, a portion of it, alone or in collaboration, in presenting the research at a meeting.)
   • The specific research technique you will gain experience with that is:
     • Not a general skill (i.e., interviewing patients, abstracting data from charts).
     • Transferable to other research projects of a similar nature. Examples include: Electron microscopy, western blot, specific psychometric research instrument that requires training to administer and is a validated standard research.

1. Submit the SAEF form to the faculty or project supervisor with whom you will work, and then to the department head or business manager for approval. These will be two different people.
2. When Part II has been completed, return the SAEF form along with your letter to the Office of Student Affairs, Room 112, for further processing.
3. Contact OSA, (312) 996-2450, at the end of 15 business days to see if you were academically eligible. If so, the approved SAEF will be available for pickup at OSA (Front Desk) to be taken to hiring department for further processing. A copy of the approved letter will be mailed to Financial Aid and may be mailed to the student.

Download the SAEF Form

REMINDER: Completion of the SAEF does not automatically guarantee or grant a waiver or hourly employment.

This packet of documents should be approved one month prior to the hire starting date. If you have any questions, please contact the Office of Student Affairs, Room 112, (312) 996-2450.