Extra Employment for Graduate Assistants

During the term of their appointment, graduate assistants are prohibited from working in any capacity at NIU for more than 20 hours per week.

Human Resource Services may allow for the extra employment of graduate assistants appointed to less than .50 FTE if the additional work is not aligned with their current assistantship. If a department wishes to employ a graduate assistant for extra time, the Request for Extra Employment for Graduate Assistant Form must be submitted to Human Resource Services by the department or other unit requesting the employment.

Departments desiring to hire a .25 FTE or .37 FTE assistant for extra time may be required to make an additional assistantship appointment.

In addition to consideration of the information on this form, decisions to approve the request will be based on the student's good academic standing and satisfactory progress toward the degree. Permission may take as long as ten (10) days to process and is not guaranteed. The student must not begin the extra work until permission has been granted by Human Resource Services.

The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) strictly limits foreign students entering the United States on a non-immigrant visa to 20 hours of total employment per week while the University is in session, and university policy prohibits graduate assistants, including all students on a non-immigrant visa from working more than 20 hours per week at any time.

Approved by Graduate Council, May 4, 1992
Modified by Graduate School, October 29, 1998; November 2, 2015
Editorial modification, February 6, 2004; July 13, 2010; April 7, 2014