Subject: RE: Some Student Questions Resent-Date: Tue, 28 Dec 1999 16:58:08 -0500 Resent-From: Geoffrey Fox Resent-To: p_gcf@npac.syr.edu Date: Mon, 27 Dec 1999 10:31:31 -0500 From: Jennifer Clark To: "'Ted Baker'" , "gcf@npac.syr.edu" CC: "gaitrosd@nu.cs.fsu.edu" , "jclark@nu.cs.fsu.edu" Formally Admitted Undergraduates: 212 Senior Undergraduates: 155 Total Graduate Students: 117 Not-Formally Admitted Undergraduates ("lower division wannabe's"): 332 Total Undergrads (Formally and Not-Formally Admitted): 544 -----Original Message----- From: Ted Baker [SMTP:baker@dad.cs.fsu.edu] Sent: Thursday, December 23, 1999 8:16 AM To: gcf@npac.syr.edu Cc: gaitrosd@nu.cs.fsu.edu; jclark@nu.cs.fsu.edu Subject: Re: Some Student Questions Geoffrey, I'm cc'ing this to Jennifer and David since they may correct my numbers and provide more detailed information. (David and Jennifer: These questions are asked often enough that we should probably create a web page with the information on it?) | 1) I just want to normalize my thinking re numbers | Approximately how many Computer Science Majors | a) Total Undergraduate about 200 upper division majors about 300 lower division wannabee majors TOTAL: about 500 Both numbers have been increasing at a rate of about 10%/year. We turn away quite a few wannabees because of our minimum 2.5 GPA rule and some "tough" courses. | b) Senior Undergraduate about 100 | c) Masters about 80 | d) PhD level about 20 It is hard to tell about the split between MS and PhD until they pass the admission to candidacy. We have a number of students who say they intend to do a PhD but then leave after the master's. The 80/20 split is my best guess about the proportion who really stick with the PhD. | 2) Are there any standard stipends for Graduate Students? | For example at Syracuse we pay for one semester at NPAC | $4200 Beginning Masters | $4725 Beginning PhD i.e. typically masters | $5250 PhD who has passed all hurdles except research | each department however sets their own rules There is no official standard. The department has a set of fixed rates for entering TA's, that depend on the level of responsibility we expect them to be able to take (grader, recitation instructor, full-responsibility instructor, lead lecturer and TA supervisor). For RA's it is up to the PI. I think the rates range from about $12/hr to about $15/hr for the RA's I've seen. Of course they get tuition waivers, on top of the pay. The tuition waivers are now charged to the contract or grant, so you need to keep that in mind when you budget. I sent out an e-mail to "faculty@cs.fsu.edu" last week on this, which I'll append. You probably got a copy on your "gcf@cs.fsu.edu" account, but may not be checking mail there. | 3) Is there a channel (e,g. e-mail) i can let FSU Students know | that I might have Research Assistantships for summer or fall? You can send e-mail to "grads@cs.fsu.edu" and "undergrads@cs.fsu.edu". These go to the students who have accounts on the CS Department machines. If you like I could also make a temporary link from the departmental home page to an HTML file you could provide. --Ted ------------copy of old mail------------------- Martha, I'm not sure I can answer all your questions. Kathy and David Gaitros will need to fill in the gaps. I'm copying all faculty on this, because of the question about RA rates. | Are there any entry level or lead research rates for graduate | research students or is it whatever the PI wishes to pay? It is currently up to the PI. In the past I attempted to get a committee of faculty to draft a set of departmental guidelines for RA pay. Everyone on the committee gave me the no-response treatment. I took this as a form of passive resistance to establishing any guidelines. If this e-mail stirs up two or three volunteers to draft guidelines, I would be pleased to bring such up for a faculty vote. | Is it correct that on August 9, 1999 the graduate teaching | assistants hire/base entry rate was $11.8608 hourly? David or Kathy will need to answer this. | Then, on October 1, 1999 all graduate teaching assistants | received a rate increase That is true. | that then became the new hire/base entry rate of $12.1929? For many years we have kept the base entry rate fixed, and this means our TA pay has been slipping relative to other departments and other universities. We need to do something to address this problem. We cannot afford to raise all of our existing TA's beyond the annual budget increse given to us by the university, since to do so would mean taking the money out of existing positions -- i.e, reducing the number of TA's we have. In contrast, we should be able to raise the entry rate by the annual increase amount, since they are replacing people who were generally being paid at a level above the base rate. While we do this, we need to maintain some spread between continuing experienced TA's and new TA's, though. I don't know whether we have implemented this yet, but I believe what I proposed to Kathy and David was that we split the difference. That is, raise the entry rate by 1/2 the annual increase that is given to continuing TA's. In addition to the annual increases, we differentiate TA's according to level of responsibility. Graders have less responsibility than TA's who teach recitation sections, who have less responsibility than TA's who teach entire courses or lecture and supervise other TA's doing recitations. This rate is linked to the job. If a TA falls back from a more responsible position to a less responsible one, the rate also falls back. (I don't recall a specific case of this happening, so I think of the policy as mainly being a disincentive for TA's who are not able to handle responsibility and need to be demoted. | So, rather than keeping the base/entry | rate at $11.8608 and going with a constant entry level | rate of 11.8608 and intermediate rates that are adjusted by | the years of service and across-the-board rate increases, we stay | with fluctuating entry level and lead TA rates. Both currently | increasing as across-the-board rate increases occur. Is this | correct? As I mentioned above, it is my intent that for at least the Fall 2001 TA's both will increase, with the rate of increase for continuing TA's being double the rate of increase in the entry level rate. This does not affect anyone yet, since we are currently in the middle of an academic year. So, if any of the faculty are interested in this subject and wish to argue in favor of another course, there is still time to change, but we can't wait too long since we will be making offers for incoming students early in the Spring term.