DTS, ATS, Scholarships, and Fellowships
The DGS controls the department's tuition scholarship budgets, and this is one of the areas where the role has the most direct financial impact. DTS (Dean's Tuition Scholarship) funding is allocated annually by dollar amount from the Graduate School to each college, specifically for in-state tuition costs of RAs on grants that either disallow tuition or have budgets of $100K or less in annual direct costs. ATS (Allocated Tuition Scholarship) awards are part of the Block Funding package at the college's discretion and have traditionally been reserved for PhD students, though creative arrangements are possible. The annual DTS allocation typically ranges from $27K to $35K—not a large number when covering multiple students' tuition. Each fall and spring, I solicited DTS nominations from faculty, verified that each nominated student met eligibility criteria, and compiled a single departmental request spreadsheet in priority order. Since the allocation is limited, the DGS rank-orders students and decides who gets funded first versus waitlisted. The business officer compiles grant account numbers and tuition amounts. Eligibility questions can be tricky: a faculty member may argue that although a grant is large overall, it contains sub-projects that individually qualify as "small." I found it necessary to decide how to split the annual allocation between fall and spring, track remaining balances, and ensure students had actually charged their full tuition amounts—unspent funds can be lost. Each semester, the DGS cross-checks the College's reconciliation report against departmental records and resolves discrepancies. The tuition scholarship rules from the DGS Manual (PDF) are important to know cold: full-time TAs and RAs get full tuition scholarships (in-state and out-of-state) plus mandatory fees; half-time get half. GSAS forms are required every semester. Tuition scholarships are not available during winter term. They are not available for summer TA appointments (only out-of-state tuition scholarships for summer RAs/GAs). They do not cover audit courses, pass/fail courses, courses beyond 767 for doctoral students, or courses not required for the degree. The FICA exemption applies to students enrolled at least half-time (5+ hours fall/spring, 3+ hours summer). The DGS also submits TA unit plans to the Associate Dean—preliminary by June 1 (unit counts, no names) and final by August (with names). The College has a TA unit allocation formula based on student credit hours taught, with TA evaluation completion rates factored in, so there is a real incentive to ensure evaluations get done. For fellowships, I solicited nominations from faculty for college-wide awards, managed the departmental nomination pipeline, wrote DGS nomination letters, and supplied departmental statistics like average time to MS and PhD. Fellowship deadlines can arrive with little warning, and assembling a nomination package often requires data that is not readily at hand. I found it essential to keep running statistics on time-to-degree to avoid scrambling when the deadline hits. TA and RA Assistantships
The DGS serves as the central coordinator for virtually the entire TA lifecycle, and a significant part of the RA lifecycle as well. AR 5:2 governs appointment policies, and AR 5:3 governs language screening for non-native English speaking TAs. The DGS Manual specifies four TA types with distinct credentialing requirements driven by SACS accreditation standards. The type system is essential to understand: Type 1 and Type 2 TAs (primary instructors and those teaching under a course coordinator) must achieve Category 1 language screening status (score of 3.5+); Type 3 and Type 4 TAs (supporting classroom roles and out-of-classroom roles like grading) require at minimum Category 2 (score of 3.0+). A TA who fails to achieve adequate scores after the allowed attempts becomes ineligible, and the department must find alternative funding. My role involved tracking available TA slots (full and half positions), communicating running tallies to the Chair, and determining how positions are distributed each semester. I drafted and sent formal offer letters—the Chair sometimes wanted letters prepared but not sent until a specific signal. The roster must be maintained carefully. Students who were promised funding but whose names were omitted from a departmental list will come to the DGS in distress, and one needs to be able to trace what happened. GSAS processing is where the time goes. Every TA and RA must be entered into the GSAS system each semester with correct classifications, correct tuition amounts, and correct funding sources. Students must accept their contracts before hard deadlines set by the Provost—and critically, unaccepted funds still count against the program's allocation. I found myself chasing students and faculty advisors individually. Running GSAS "Fetch Reports" identifies students showing zero tuition amounts for cross-referencing against the DTS list. One should expect inconsistencies every semester; the reconciliation process with the College business office is ongoing. About two weeks before classes each semester, I coordinated ITA language screenings: confirming which TAs needed screening, appointing faculty evaluators for each 30-minute session, and coordinating logistics with the Graduate School. All TAs must complete mandatory Graduate School orientation before classes begin. If any have not registered, the DGS sends compliance notifications. The department is also required to hold at least one mandatory in-service training event per semester for its TAs (DGS Manual, p. 48), in addition to the university-wide program. For SACS accreditation, the DGS ensures the TA Credentials Database is accurate. The Graduate School releases audit data periodically, typically with a ten-day deadline for resolving warnings—missing contracts, incorrect TA types, students not registered for any courses. Faculty observation of at least one class or lab per TA per semester (except Type 4) is required, with observation forms due February 1 (fall) and June 1 (spring). End-of-Semester Evaluations for all TA types follow the same deadlines. These evaluations feed into university-level award nominations and are factored into the College's TA unit allocation formula. On the administrative side, TAs and RAs may work up to 20 hours per week and may not exceed 12 credit hours without Graduate School approval. Pre-employment background checks are required for all new graduate assistants (DGS Manual, p. 40). Health insurance eligibility is tied to timely payroll processing (DGS Manual, p. 38)—a delayed offer letter can knock a student off insurance. The DGS also determines teaching and research arrangements during parental leave (DGS Manual, p. 43). TAs in graduate-level courses require the Dean of the Graduate School's approval and must be limited to Type 3 roles only—they may not serve as primary instructors in courses with graduate students and must not assign final grades. The DGS also coordinates with First Year Engineering for shared TA positions. Getting GSAS entries wrong for FYE-funded TAs will count against ECE's allocation, so funding source codes demand close attention. For international TAs, I-9 forms must be completed in person, which creates timing pressure when students arrive close to the GSAS deadline. Visa and employment eligibility conflicts sometimes make planned TA appointments impossible at the last minute, requiring rapid restructuring of funding. Administrative errors in this area can cascade dramatically. A benefits form submitted in error can trigger GSAS contract cancellation, which creates unpaid tuition, which threatens the student's enrollment, which threatens their immigration status if they are on F-1. These chains are not hypothetical—they happen, and untangling them requires persistence and institutional knowledge of who at the Graduate School can actually fix things.
The DGS controls the department's tuition scholarship budgets, and this is one of the areas where the role has the most direct financial impact. DTS (Dean's Tuition Scholarship) funding is allocated annually by dollar amount from the Graduate School to each college, specifically for in-state tuition costs of RAs on grants that either disallow tuition or have budgets of $100K or less in annual direct costs. ATS (Allocated Tuition Scholarship) awards are part of the Block Funding package at the college's discretion and have traditionally been reserved for PhD students, though creative arrangements are possible. The annual DTS allocation typically ranges from $27K to $35K—not a large number when covering multiple students' tuition. Each fall and spring, I solicited DTS nominations from faculty, verified that each nominated student met eligibility criteria, and compiled a single departmental request spreadsheet in priority order. Since the allocation is limited, the DGS rank-orders students and decides who gets funded first versus waitlisted. The business officer compiles grant account numbers and tuition amounts. Eligibility questions can be tricky: a faculty member may argue that although a grant is large overall, it contains sub-projects that individually qualify as "small." I found it necessary to decide how to split the annual allocation between fall and spring, track remaining balances, and ensure students had actually charged their full tuition amounts—unspent funds can be lost. Each semester, the DGS cross-checks the College's reconciliation report against departmental records and resolves discrepancies. The tuition scholarship rules from the DGS Manual (PDF) are important to know cold: full-time TAs and RAs get full tuition scholarships (in-state and out-of-state) plus mandatory fees; half-time get half. GSAS forms are required every semester. Tuition scholarships are not available during winter term. They are not available for summer TA appointments (only out-of-state tuition scholarships for summer RAs/GAs). They do not cover audit courses, pass/fail courses, courses beyond 767 for doctoral students, or courses not required for the degree. The FICA exemption applies to students enrolled at least half-time (5+ hours fall/spring, 3+ hours summer). The DGS also submits TA unit plans to the Associate Dean—preliminary by June 1 (unit counts, no names) and final by August (with names). The College has a TA unit allocation formula based on student credit hours taught, with TA evaluation completion rates factored in, so there is a real incentive to ensure evaluations get done. For fellowships, I solicited nominations from faculty for college-wide awards, managed the departmental nomination pipeline, wrote DGS nomination letters, and supplied departmental statistics like average time to MS and PhD. Fellowship deadlines can arrive with little warning, and assembling a nomination package often requires data that is not readily at hand. I found it essential to keep running statistics on time-to-degree to avoid scrambling when the deadline hits. TA and RA Assistantships
The DGS serves as the central coordinator for virtually the entire TA lifecycle, and a significant part of the RA lifecycle as well. AR 5:2 governs appointment policies, and AR 5:3 governs language screening for non-native English speaking TAs. The DGS Manual specifies four TA types with distinct credentialing requirements driven by SACS accreditation standards. The type system is essential to understand: Type 1 and Type 2 TAs (primary instructors and those teaching under a course coordinator) must achieve Category 1 language screening status (score of 3.5+); Type 3 and Type 4 TAs (supporting classroom roles and out-of-classroom roles like grading) require at minimum Category 2 (score of 3.0+). A TA who fails to achieve adequate scores after the allowed attempts becomes ineligible, and the department must find alternative funding. My role involved tracking available TA slots (full and half positions), communicating running tallies to the Chair, and determining how positions are distributed each semester. I drafted and sent formal offer letters—the Chair sometimes wanted letters prepared but not sent until a specific signal. The roster must be maintained carefully. Students who were promised funding but whose names were omitted from a departmental list will come to the DGS in distress, and one needs to be able to trace what happened. GSAS processing is where the time goes. Every TA and RA must be entered into the GSAS system each semester with correct classifications, correct tuition amounts, and correct funding sources. Students must accept their contracts before hard deadlines set by the Provost—and critically, unaccepted funds still count against the program's allocation. I found myself chasing students and faculty advisors individually. Running GSAS "Fetch Reports" identifies students showing zero tuition amounts for cross-referencing against the DTS list. One should expect inconsistencies every semester; the reconciliation process with the College business office is ongoing. About two weeks before classes each semester, I coordinated ITA language screenings: confirming which TAs needed screening, appointing faculty evaluators for each 30-minute session, and coordinating logistics with the Graduate School. All TAs must complete mandatory Graduate School orientation before classes begin. If any have not registered, the DGS sends compliance notifications. The department is also required to hold at least one mandatory in-service training event per semester for its TAs (DGS Manual, p. 48), in addition to the university-wide program. For SACS accreditation, the DGS ensures the TA Credentials Database is accurate. The Graduate School releases audit data periodically, typically with a ten-day deadline for resolving warnings—missing contracts, incorrect TA types, students not registered for any courses. Faculty observation of at least one class or lab per TA per semester (except Type 4) is required, with observation forms due February 1 (fall) and June 1 (spring). End-of-Semester Evaluations for all TA types follow the same deadlines. These evaluations feed into university-level award nominations and are factored into the College's TA unit allocation formula. On the administrative side, TAs and RAs may work up to 20 hours per week and may not exceed 12 credit hours without Graduate School approval. Pre-employment background checks are required for all new graduate assistants (DGS Manual, p. 40). Health insurance eligibility is tied to timely payroll processing (DGS Manual, p. 38)—a delayed offer letter can knock a student off insurance. The DGS also determines teaching and research arrangements during parental leave (DGS Manual, p. 43). TAs in graduate-level courses require the Dean of the Graduate School's approval and must be limited to Type 3 roles only—they may not serve as primary instructors in courses with graduate students and must not assign final grades. The DGS also coordinates with First Year Engineering for shared TA positions. Getting GSAS entries wrong for FYE-funded TAs will count against ECE's allocation, so funding source codes demand close attention. For international TAs, I-9 forms must be completed in person, which creates timing pressure when students arrive close to the GSAS deadline. Visa and employment eligibility conflicts sometimes make planned TA appointments impossible at the last minute, requiring rapid restructuring of funding. Administrative errors in this area can cascade dramatically. A benefits form submitted in error can trigger GSAS contract cancellation, which creates unpaid tuition, which threatens the student's enrollment, which threatens their immigration status if they are on F-1. These chains are not hypothetical—they happen, and untangling them requires persistence and institutional knowledge of who at the Graduate School can actually fix things.
