The GFS (Graduate Financials System) Project will replace Stanford's legacy GFS with PeopleSoft GFS starting in the Fall of 2002. Individuals who normally enter information into GFS for assistantship appointments should check with their departments about the need for access to the PeopleSoft GFS system and appropriate training.

In conjunction with this transition, Stanford has clarified some of its policies related to assistantships and tuition allowance. You will notice the following in the Tuition Allowance tables for 2002-03:

1. The value of 8,9,10 units of tuition (or the maximum tuition allowance for a 50% RA or TA appointment) is still equivalent to 62% of full tuition this year. The value of tuition allowance for lesser appointments is now strictly linear, i.e., the tuition for each unit is one-tenth of the 8,9,10 unit tuition value. As a result of this linear relationship, two 25% assistantships can now be added to provide the equivalent (in both units and dollars) of one 50% assistantship. (Because they charge full tuition at a lower unit level, i.e., at 9 or 10 units, this does not apply to units in the Med MD program or in the Law School. It does however apply to the dollar value of TAL for assistantships in those programs.)
   
   The linear tuition structure described above also simplifies the splitting of the cost of tuition allowance for Research Assistants (the portion charged to the source of project funding and the portion to be paid by Stanford). The dollars in these tables reflect the same distribution of cost as in the past. The calculations behind the tables are now more straightforward.
   
   
2. For SUMMER QUARTER of the 2002-03 Academic Year
   
   Appointments of more than 50% (20 hours per week) are allowed in the Summer Quarter. As in previous years, the amount of tuition allowance will DECREASE as assistantship appointments INCREASE beyond 50% (see table).
   
   The value of 1,2,3 units of tuition is the minimum tuition charge for matriculated graduate students (other than TGR students). This charge is equal to the value of 3 units of tuition. Graduate students with 100% assistantships in the Summer Quarter will have to enroll is the special one-unit course (SPEC 501). They will be charged the 1,2,3 unit tuition, and they will receive that amount of TAL.
   
   NOTE: Starting in the Summer of 2004, Summer Quarter assistantships are now capped at 90% FTE (see May 14, 2004 announcement).
   
   The value of TAL for an RA on a summer appointment will be split between the source of salary funding and the university (or the School of Medicine, for those paid by that School), in the same way that TAL is split for all other non-TGR RAships.
   
   For students with a Summer Quarter TA appointment that will last only eight weeks, the assistantship appointment in GFS must include a "Termination date." This will end the TA's pay as of that date. The student will receive the amount of TAL appropriate to the full-quarter appointment.
   
   

Note: For Fall, Winter and Spring Quarters, graduate students who are not on TGR status (or within only a few units of TGR status) must be enrolled for 8,9,10 units in order to receive any tuition allowance.

Other changes related to assistantships were announced by Charles Kruger in a memo to faculty, dated April 2, 2002. That memo is online at http://www.stanford.edu/dept/DoR/gfs/memo.html

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BACK to 2002-03 Salary and Tuition Tables

For additional information, contact the Assistant Dean for Graduate Policy.

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