TA Funding Policy Overview for Web Courses

Web courses eligible for support under the TA Funding policy must meet the following criteria for enrollment:

• Undergraduate courses will become eligible for support when enrollment exceeds 25 students
• Graduate courses will become eligible for support when enrollment exceeds 20 students.
• Please note that in person, web enhanced courses do not qualify for support under this policy.

Support for an eligible course may be obtained through:

• a request for a minimum commitment of funds if the course has already been taught on the web OR
• a request for funding based on the Census enrollment (also known as Freeze or 21-day count) of the term during which the course is taught

The Courses Eligible for Minimum Commitment of Funds report provides information on which courses may be used to request a minimum commitment of funds and the amount available.

• A minimum commitment of funds may be requested for an eligible academic year course based on the Freeze enrollment of the same course in the most recent academic year semester that the course was offered.
• If support is being requested for a Winter or Summer Session course, the minimum commitment of funding will be based on the Freeze enrollment of the prior Winter or Summer Session.
• For example: If you are teaching BIO 3XX in Fall 2009, you would check the report to see what the enrollment was for this course in Spring 09 or Fall 08. If the course was offered in both semesters, then funding would be based on the enrollment for Spring 04. If the enrollment for BIO 3XX in Spring 09 was greater than 25 students, then the course was eligible for funding, and a request for a minimum commitment of funds to be used in support of the Fall 2009 offering of BIO 3XX could be made for the amount displayed in the report.
• The following variables will be taken into consideration when reviewing a request to ensure the continued availability of funding for as many courses as possible through the equitable allocation of funds.
  • A decrease in the course cap from the prior semester's offering
  • A cap that is lower than the prior offering's Census enrollment
  • A change in course length
  • Other significant variance in the course's structure For example, if a Fall course with a cap of 40 students is using the prior Spring offering of the same course with an enrollment of 62 as the basis for the request, the minimum commitment of funding will be based on the Fall cap of 40 students.
• As the intent of the policy for the minimum commitment of funds is to provide for long-term planning, such as recruiting in the Spring semester for teaching assistants for Fall courses, requests that are submitted within 2 weeks of the start of the course, or later, will be reviewed with the current enrollment activity of the course taken into consideration.
• If the request is submitted after the start date of the course, the decision on the level of funding may be deferred until the official Census count is available, again, based on the current enrollment activity of the course.
• Once a decision has been made on the request for minimum commitment of funding, an email will be sent to the instructor with a copy to the department chair.

Funding may also be requested and awarded based on the Census enrollment during which the course is offered (current Census), and does not need to be preceded with a request for a minimum commitment of funds.

• Courses being offered for the first time or courses that do not have sufficient historical enrollment to support a request for a minimum commitment of funds will be eligible for support if the current Census enrollment exceeds the minimum enrollment required for funding.

Check the Current Freeze report after Census occurs in the session that the course is delivered to view the amount available for courses that have met the enrollment criteria as given above.

• A course that has received a minimum commitment of funds will be eligible for additional funding if the enrollment given in the Current Freeze report exceeds the Freeze enrollment upon which minimum funding was based.

The initial hiring and payment of teaching assistants will be the responsibility of the academic unit offering the course; reimbursement of eligible salary expenses will be made through a Payroll Expense transfer request submitted by the Academic Unit to Extended Campuses at the end of the semester.

The claim for reimbursement of course assistant funding and payment of TA management stipends should be sent to Extended Campuses, Attn: Financial Unit, Box 4117, and include the following:

1. a copy of the teaching assistant hire paperwork (PAR, Student Wage Authorization Form)
2. the name of the faculty member who taught the course
3. the course prefix and number
4. the class number
5. the class delivery semester or session

Please note all incentive payments are subject to the availability of funds.

1. Please refer to the full text of the TA Funding Policy for more details on funding levels, source of funding, payment of TA management stipends, reimbursement of course assistant expenses, etc.

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