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Additional Employment

ADDITIONAL EMPLOYMENT – 100 HOUR RULE

GA Integrity

Graduate students may not hold more than the total equivalent of one assistantship (20 hours per week) to avoid:

  • compromising their participation as full-time grad students.
  • degrading the quality of their scholarly experience.
  • preventing the timely completion of their degree requirements.

100 Hour Rule

The 100 Hour Rule states that any student who has a regular (20 hours per week) graduate assistantship may not be employed for more than 100 hours per academic term beyond the assistantship by the home unit or by another unit without the permission of the Office of Graduate Education and Life.

On rare occasions, graduate students may be hired as hourly workers in addition to their assistantship assignment. To protect their academic standing, the “100-hour rule” is applied for student workers who have assistantships.

The 100-hour rule allows units to hire a graduate student who has an assistantship for incidental hourly work without seeking permission prior to hiring the student. Please be aware, however, that F-1 or J-1 visa holders are restricted to working 20 hours per week when classes are in session and may only work additional hours during breaks.

Partial GAs

Partial graduate assistants (10 hours per week) may not hold a second partial assistantship but may work up to 10 hours per week as an hourly student worker.

The EBO placing a graduate student on an hourly assignment should determine whether that student is already on a regular assistantship assignment and should clarify that the student will work no more than 100 hours beyond the assistantship for the semester. A violation of the 100-hour rule may cause the hiring unit to lose its privileges to employ graduate students who are on assistantships.

Need permission to hire 100+ Hours

Units that want to hire a graduate hourly worker for more than 100 hours beyond their regular assistantship must get permission from the student’s home academic unit and the Office of Graduate Education and Life. The hiring unit must write a memo describing the student’s duties, why it is critical to hire this person, and how the assignment will reinforce the student’s academic program. The memo should be forwarded to the student’s academic unit for approval and subsequently forwarded to the Office of Graduate Education and Life for final approval.