Graduate students may be eventually blocked from doing some administrative assistantships under a stipulation of the university’s Strategic Plan that requires the positions to be “supportive of academic success.”
In an administrative assistantship, graduate students often work outside their fields of study, doing photocopying, filing and other clerical work.
Under the plan, graduate assistant assignments must have a research or professional development component — such as an engineering student working at Facilities Management or a psychology student working at the Counseling Center.
But students told the Student Affairs Committee of the Graduate Council — a group of students and faculty that sets graduate school policy — they have benefited from an even broader variety of assistantships, saying the work helps them develop skills that are applicable to their future careers.
“Many of the people who are working in administrative assistantships do not have work experience,” Sheetal Tripath, a graduate student at the information studies college said at the Graduate Student Government meeting on Friday. “And for them having this kind of experience is a big thing.”
“There is a part of customer relations that is professional development that can be built into an assistantship,” GSG vice president of student affairs Lenisa Joseph added.
But other GSG leaders questioned the value of an administrative assistantship compared to an instructional or research position.
“Every job, if you stretch it, can be a requirement of professional development. The question is are we willing to stretch it,” GSG President Anupama Kothari said, adding there aren’t enough alternatives available for graduate students.
While assistantships are not required, many graduate students desire the posts for the combination of a paycheck with a flexible work schedule.
Many graduate students consider some administrative positions to be mind-numbing and beneath their skill level, but chemistry graduate student Stefani Sherill said they’re a passable way to pay the bills for students who can’t find something else.
“The one nice thing is that it’s only 20 hours. You go in, you sit and answer your phone, make photocopies and file whatever,” Sherill said of her work. “This type of assistantships pays the bills.”
Students also said they would want to know in advance whether their assistantships would involve research or just answering a phone.
“I agree that there needs to be a range of different professional development that are known to the students who are applying,” said nutrition and food science graduate student Patrick Williams. “They should know what professional development or lack thereof is there.”
Administrators emphasized a need to maintain satisfaction with those positions in which the administrative assistants and their departments both were satisfied.
“If both the person answering the phones and the department that they are answering phones for are both happy with the situation, there is not a problem,” said Charles Delwiche, a biology professor who serves on the Graduate Council.
The council is seeking to reconcile this satisfaction with the Strategic Plan’s requirements.
“We’re not an inquisition here,” said economics professor John Shea, a council member. “We’re going to make a general report about what are the success and failures of current assistantships.”
The committee’s members said that the evaluation of graduate assistantships would not necessarily lead to the outright elimination of any positions, but Robert Schwab, the committee chairman, said there might be some “restructuring.”
quijada@umdbk.com
