We at the Graduate Assistant Advisory Committee (GAAC) would like to give all graduate assistants (returning and new) a warm welcome to UMBC! For those that do not know, the GAAC is the body comprised solely of UMBC graduate assistants that meets with Graduate School Administration to relay any employment concerns. We also work with administrators to amend and enact policies that benefit graduate assistants at UMBC.
Last year, our main focus was keeping an affordable Graduate Assistant health insurance plan that would adequately meet the needs of graduate assistants. Through your participation in online surveys and willingness to share your stories, we were able to convince the graduate school to keep our current plan at no cost to us. (The departmental chairs and graduate program directors played a crucial role in finding the money to pay for the continued coverage, so please thank them!) We are willing to work with a broad range of groups, but we need your input in order to determine where the need lies.
If you have a concern that you would like to bring to our attention, you may do so by sending an email to GAAC@umbc.edu. All correspondence through this email remains confidential and is only viewed by GAAC members, with all identifying information removed before bringing it to other parties should the need arise.
Also, we're always looking for new members, so feel free to
send an email to GAAC@umbc.edu if you're interested in joining the GAAC.
Good luck this semester! Below are some helpful links for Graduate Assistants. Please let us know if there is anything else we can do to help.
Sincerely,
The Graduate Assistant Advisory Committee
Helpful Link 1: The Graduate Assistant Handbook. This contains all the policies that govern your assistantship, including vacation time, sick leave, tuition remission, and ways to address workplace complaints.
http://gradschool.umbc.edu/funding/assistantships/handbook/
Helpful Link 2: Link to GA Forms. These are the forms that we need to fill out periodically, such as forms for tuition remission, health insurance, and completion of duties (equivalent of the timesheet).
http://gradschool.umbc.edu/funding/assistantships/forms/
Helpful Link 3: The GAAC myUMBC Group. This is where we post things of importance, including our current progress on different issues.
