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Students should check their email each day. Email is the official means for posting all announcements in the graduate program. Students should also periodically check the English Department home page for announcements of news and upcoming events or deadlines.
Registration
For each semester that you hold a teaching or research assistantship, you must be registered for courses and/or research hours. Early each fall and spring, the Graduate Coordinator will invite all students to complete the online “Course Preferences Form,” which will allow you to give us your preferences for the courses that you would like to take in the upcoming semester. (The form also collects information on what you would like to teach—more on this appears below.) Our first priority in registration is to accommodate as many first-choice requests for courses as possible. After the registration information has been retrieved from the internal system, the Graduate Coordinator will work to arrange the seminar/workshop rosters to give as many students as possible their top choices for classes. Keep in mind, too: for any number of reasons—overdue tuition, unreturned library books, missing vaccination records, etc.—the Registrar could place a hold on your registration. For this reason, we encourage all students to review ONE.UF for potential registration holds and work to remove those immediately after submitting the “Course Preferences Form.” This ensures smooth sailing when the Graduate Coordinator finishes work on the seminar/workshop rosters and begins registering students for classes in the university’s SIS interface. The department will register all students who make their requests through the preferences system, but it is the students’ responsibility to verify that they have been registered for the correct courses and correct number of hours. The university has recently increased penalties for changes after drop/add concludes, and so it is important that all changes are made prior to that date. All payroll papers and fee waivers depend on a correct and timely registration. The English Graduate Handbook provides more detailed information on registration. You can find the handbook at the Department’s Forms & Links page.
Payroll
Initial entry into the University payroll system requires many forms, with additional forms for all international students. The basic forms are a completed W-4, a copy of the social security card, a loyalty oath, etc. International students must also present I-20, passport, visa, etc. You will be informed of all the proper paperwork required.
A letter of contract was part of the Department’s initial offer. For renewal each year, a letter of contract is given at the end of the spring semester, after annual review of student progress. Each semester, Melissa Davis must determine whether a student will be assigned to teach in the English Department or in the University Writing Program, and make adjustments in the letter accordingly. Other items to be considered as part of the new letter are rate of pay, title of position, length of appointment and whether or not a student is still in-funding. A letter of appointment will be processed on the first date of employment for each term (the date is determined each year by the Human Resource Department and the Provost’s Office) in order for a tuition waiver to be generated. The letter of appointment must be signed each semester.
The Department always makes an effort to post tuition waivers before financial services deducts money from financial aid; however, the waiver does not run through the university financial system until as late as the end of the second week of classes. This may affect some students who take out loans. Students should always be prepared for such delays.
Requests for Teaching Preferences, Syllabi Review & Course Assignments
The same online form that we use to collect information regarding your desired course enrollment for the next semester also includes a section in which you can tell us what you’d ideally like to teach. Early each semester, through the online form, you can and should indicate what you would prefer to teach in the upcoming semester. Typically each semester, the Director of Graduate Student Teaching (DGST) will also call for proposals for special topics courses, and doctoral students may propose these as well. Please remember, though, that department and university curricular needs supersede any such requests.
Students need to fill out the on-line teaching preference forms by the date specified. The Graduate Coordinator will send out an announcement near the middle of each semester letting you know when the system will be open.
Each student will be assigned a course or courses to teach for the next semester after their own registration has been completed. Students will then be notified of their teaching assignments, and syllabi will be due for review shortly thereafter by the DGST and the General Education Committee. Occasionally assignments will have to be changed because of registration changes, but the Department attempts to keep such changes to a minimum and appreciates the generosity and flexibility of the graduate students.
Summer Payroll & Course Assignments
Students may request the opportunity to teach during the summer for additional pay. During the spring semester, the Director of Graduate Student Teaching will invite students to notify them regarding their desire for summer teaching. Recently, the rate of pay for summer classes has varied a little depending upon the course and its enrollment, but generally summer GTAs earn in the range of $5,000-$5,500 per course.
Summer appointments are dependent on satisfactory progress, with GPA, advancement in the program, academic requirements, award amounts for the academic year, and departmental needs all determining the order of appointment. The university budget limits the number of sections that the department and UWP are able to offer in any given summer, and so this means that not every student who requests summer teaching and is eligible for it will necessarily receive it.
Annual Review
Early each spring semester, the Graduate Coordinator sends out the Annual Review form for PhD students. Completing the form, which includes meeting with the dissertation supervisor or Graduate Coordinator, is a Department and a Graduate School requirement, and we use it to determine which students wish to continue/renew their assistantship for the next academic year. Department faculty also use these forms to provide information to the Graduate Coordinator regarding their advisees’ progress in the program. Because both the Department and Graduate School require submission of an Annual Review, no student will be enrolled for credits in summer or fall without have previously completed the Annual Review process.
Teaching Awards & Evaluations
All teaching assistants are evaluated each year through either the English Department or the University Writing Program (UWP). In the Department, students are eligible to participate in either of two processes of Department evaluation: award-track or evaluation-only. Each Fall, the Director of Graduate Student Teaching (DGST) assigns Faculty members to evaluate graduate students who are teaching in the English Department. In consultation with the General Education Committee, the DGST announces the award winners in Spring semester.
Travel
If funds are made available in the annual budget, the Department will provide partial support for one request per graduate student per year for travel to a conference to deliver a paper. To apply for Departmental travel money, complete and submit a Departmental travel request form available online. There are no deadlines for making this request, but please be aware that the travel fund can run out before the end of the academic year. Maximum support available through the department in recent years has been $300, though we will make higher provision if the budget allows.
The College of Liberal Arts & Sciences and the Graduate Student Council also make funds available for graduate student travel, as do some graduate certificate and other programs. Please watch for announcements of these competitive grants.
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