Graduate Assistantship Survey
Spring 2016
I. Survey Information
· Survey emailed to 80 graduate assistants on 4/13/16
· 72 respondents
· 90 % response rate
II. Respondents
Department/Program / Supervisor / Hours per WeekAAEC / Nelson Edmonds / 20
AAEC / Pam Tanner/Nelson Edmonds / 20+
Academic Assessment / Joan Littlefield Cook / 20
Academic Support, Campus Tutorial Services / Shane Staff / 23
Accounting / Alka Arora / 14
Alumni Relations And Development / Emily Gruenewald / 20
Athletic Department / Chris Lindeke / 10
Athletics / Steve Hillmer / 10
Athletics/ Women's Basketball / Keri Carollo & Amy Zelinger / 20
Career & Leadership Development / Sarah Suter / 20
Career and Leadership Development / Kimberly Clarksen / 10
Center for Students with Disabilities / Amy DiMola / 20
Center for Students with Disabilities / Betsy Brandt / 30
Clinical Mental Health Counseling Program / Jeff Cook / 20
CoBE Tech Media / Dr. Robert Schramm / 20
College of Education / Tracy Arneson-Baker & Melanie Agnew / fall semester - 10 hours
spring semester - 15 hours
College of Letters & Sciences Advising / Annie Weberpal / 13
Communication / Tammy French / 20
Communication Sciences and Disorders / Roxanne DePaul, Beth Miller Swanson / 20
Communication Sciences and Disorders / Guiliana Miolo / 20
Communication Sciences and Disorders / Casey O'Keefe, Lynn Gilbertson, Giuliana Miolo / 40+
Communication Sciences and Disorders / Casey O'Keefe/Roxanne DePaul/Beth Swanson / 10
Communication/Corporate Communication / Corey Davis / 15
Communications Department / Tammy French / 10
Counseling Education / Krista Kim, Brenda O' Beirne, Jennifer Betters-Bubon / 20-25
Counselor Ed / Brenda OBeirne, Jennifer Betters-Bubon, Krista Kim / 20
Counselor Education / Brenda O'Beirne, Jennifer Betters-Bubon / 10
Counselor Education / Brenda O'Beirne, Jennifer Betters-Bubon, Krista Kim / 20
Counselor Education / Brenda Rust O'Beirne and Jennifer Betters-Bubon / 20
Counselor Education Department / Brenda Rust O'Beirne / 30
CSD / Betsy Brandt / 15-20 hours
CSD / Amy DiMola / 20
CSD / Claire DuCharme / 10
CSD / Giorgianne Maziarka / about 23
DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT / PROF. JAMES BRONSON
Economics / David Welsch, Yamin Ahmad / 15-20
Economics / David Welsch / 20
Finance and Business Law Deparment / Kim Marino / 20
FYE / Marie Hornickel / 20 (40 in the summer)
FYE- Learning Communities and Family Programs / Kelli Danielski / 20 hours
Intercollegiate Athletics / Amy Edmonds / 15-20
ITSCM / Dave Munro / 20
Management / Praveen Parboteeah / 15
Marketing Department / Char Anderson / 15
Marketing/supply chain / Char Anderson / 10
MSE-PD Higher Education Leadership / Ron Buchholz / 21
Occupational & Environmental Safety & Health / Kay Vant / 20+
Psychology / Dr. Christine Neddenriep / 20-25
Residence Life / Tiffany Tardy, Frank Hartfield Jr. / 20
School of Graduate Studies / John Stone / 12
School Psychology / Dr. Neddenriep / 20
School Psychology / Christine Neddenriep; Rachelle Yankelevitz / 20
School Psychology Program/Psychology Department / Dr. Neddenriep and Dr. Karnes / 20
Science Academy / Catherine Chan/Kara Meissen / 21
Special Education / Dr. Casey / 20+
Strength and Conditioning / Lee Munger / 30
Testing / Nelson Edmonds / 15
The Office of Academic Assessment / Joan Littlefield Cook / 20
UHCS / Whitney Henley / 15
University Housing / Terry Tumbarello, Manda Krier-Jenkins, Jack Fischer / 20
University Housing / Terry Tumbarello / Janet Salgado / 20
University Housing / Amanda Murphy, Amanda Krier-Jenkins, Terry Tumbarello / 20
University Housing / Christina Aichele / 20 on average
University Housing / Amanda Murphy. Amanda Krier-Jenkins, Terry Tumbarello, Kristina Navarro / 25
University Housing / Terry Tumbarello / 30
University Housing / Tiffany Tardy / 14
University Housing / Terry Tumbarello / 30
University Housing / Terry Tumbarello / 10
URP/RAP / Juk Bhattacharyya / 22+
UW-Whitewater Testing Office / Nelson Edmonds / 20
Warhawk Alley / Tonia Harvel / 15
Wheelchair Athletics / Jeremy Lade / 40-60
III. Survey Responses
· % Time Performing Each Task:
o Support research for faculty –mean = 15.42
o Support instruction by faculty –mean = 29.01
o Support departments administratively –mean = 26.48
o Other –mean = 34
· Factors in accepting an assistantship (1-4, 1 representing the most important):
o Financial Support–mean = 2.08
o Eligibility for benefits–mean = 2.76
o Work with faculty–mean = 2.26
o Other –mean = 2.81
· Extent to which GA was a learning experience:
o Not at all –0 (0%)
o Somewhat – 3 (4.17%)
o Moderate – 13 (18.06%)
o A lot – 35 (48.61%)
o I am a different person due to it – 21 (29.17%)
· Extent to which GA experience contributed to the following skills/competencies:
Skills/Competencies / Not at all / Somewhat / Moderate / A lot / I am a different person due to itOrganizational Skills / 1 / 7 / 18 / 39 / 7
Management Skills / 2 / 1 / 21 / 37 / 11
Data collection skills / 11 / 9 / 27 / 21 / 4
Data management skills / 11 / 6 / 34 / 17 / 4
Library research skills / 26 / 19 / 14 / 10 / 3
Problem-solving skills / 6 / 18 / 39 / 9
Technology skills / 3 / 14 / 24 / 26 / 5
Oral communication / 1 / 2 / 17 / 40 / 12
Written communication / 2 / 6 / 26 / 27 / 11
· Other relevant Skills that developed as the result of the GA experience
o People management. I worked with students in the DBA program, I had to be responsive to their needs during their class time.
o Qualtrics
o ConnectUWW
o Working with technical staff
o working with members of SUFAC
o Working with other Graduate students to reach a common goal.
o Interpersonal skills
o Helping skills
o Advising
o Mentoring
o Supervising
o working with other professionals, coordinating information to people
o I have felt huge growth in areas of personal reflection and collaboration. CSD seems to be such a great team and I have felt so welcome and able to help out in small ways.
o Stronger communication
o decision making skills
o This job was very relevant towards a career in school psychology due to the testing and report writing experiences.
o Time management
o Leadership role by reassuring that student workers were properly trained and doing what they were supposed to do.
o Multicultural Competency
o Hiring and Interviewing.
o facilitation, event planning, providing professional exploration
o Advisory skills
o budget management skills.
o Attention to detail and increased sense of thoroughness in all aspects of work.
o My assistantship is very different. I help supervise three residence halls and I have gained so much valuable knowledge and life skills just in two semesters.
o Advising, Supervision
o Helping with the professor's research and implementing her reading intervention two times per week.
o reading interventions
o learning things on the spot
o working with students with significant academic and social needs
o Excel/Access skills
o better at working directly with students
o Developed skills in website development, communication with others, marketing, organization, taking initiative, and interacting with both clients and perspective students to name a few.
o Knowledge of behind-the-scenes work in a clinical counseling environment, improved interpersonal skills, improved ability to read people
o Creative skills in video production, client relationships, and After Effects
o Self-sufficiency, proficiency in Qualtrics and growing knowledge of SPSS
o Intervention implementation & working with children
o Greater understanding of the student population and their academic concerns, needs, etc.
o How academic responsibilities/issues can be related to social/logistical issues, etc.
o office communication
o organization and presentation skills; ability to be an authentic and genuine leader
o knowledge of challenges facing students with disabilities
o Social Media network development/ Webpage design Skills/ Event Planning Skills
o coaching ability
o In my pursuit of a career in coaching basketball, this is been a great experience. Very knowledgeable coaches & mentors, who allowed me many responsibilities in order for me to grow in the field.
o Presentation skills greatly improved. Ability to work with diverse groups of people improved.
o I developed a knowledge of what goes into preparing for classes in addition to what goes into building a graduate class. I also gave a lot of tours of the department which helped me learn more about the program, department and university.
o Experiencing the customer service/ clinic side of counseling
o I appreciate getting experience in a supervisory role.
o Attention to detail when helping with grades
o Better with statistical programs, thinking through issues, presenting results
· Overall satisfaction with GA experience
o Very dissatisfied –0 (0%)
o Somewhat dissatisfied–0 (0%)
o Moderate –4 (5.56%)
o Somewhat satisfied –19 (26.39%)
o Very satisfied –68.06 (49%)
· Additional comments:
o I think that my department does a great job of providing GAs with a variety of tasks. It is a great learning experience for someone who is interested in higher education. One thing I think could be improved is for all graduate assistantships across campus to be more equal in terms of responsibilities and expectations. For example, GAs in departments across campus have varying responsibilities/expectations, some receive vacation days while others do not, etc. I am happy with the overall experience that I had in my department but I believe that the graduate studies office could check in more and see how each office utilizes their GAs.
o I am satisfied with the experience that I had with my graduate assistant-ship. I would have liked to have a few more responsibilities throughout the year but other than that it was a good year.
o The amount of amazing support that this department offers to the University as a whole should not be overlooked. I am very happy to have participated in a department that has helped me grow professionally and stretched me.
o I have enjoyed my two years here at UW Whitewater
o "This assessment does not ask the ""right"" questions to gauge a GA's experience in specific departments. It merely tries to measure whether or not a graduate assistantship (in general) is a learning experience and effective based on the skill set a person can improve on.
Overall, I have been satisfied with my graduate assistantship because of the relevant work experience I have gained and the ability to interact with students on a daily basis. There are areas that could be improved, as is the case with any department, that I will not go into detail in this form."
o Should take money out of the stipend and just pay for grad school for us.
o The percentage portion of this survey is incorrect. I did not complete any of the following due to my assistantship with University Housing.
o I have faced some challenges in obtaining/receiving assignments. But when I do get tasks and challenges, they are invaluable experiences.
o Being a GA has been an incredible professional experience. Since I am also a graduate student in the Counselor Education department, I would say that my GA position has enriched my experience as a student by connecting me with faculty members and seeing academia from another perspective.
o I am not sure that so many graduate assistants are needed. While my position did come with a lob of job duties, there are several positions where people rarely have work. I know a few GA's in the special education department do not even need to go to work.
o Overall the assistantship has continued to be a positive experience in a good environment. I also really appreciate that this job allows for some flexibility with scheduling.
o My graduate assistantship has been extremely challenging, and, as a result, has provided me with many learning opportunities. Not only have I acquired more efficient office and organization skills, I have also learned how to effectively communicate with others.
o I have spoke with my classmates and all of our experiences are so different. Some have major responsibilities and some have more leisure time. I wished their was more consistency. Also, I wished there was consistency in holding our supervisors accountable for our experiences. Some of the stories I hear from my classmates, their supervisors don't care about their learning experience and skill attainment.
o I am very impressed by the open-minded working environment in the Alumni Relations And Development Office. My supervisor always gives me some opportunities to enhance my skills and let me get involved into every colleague meeting. The really working experience helps me to grow up.
o It's unfortunate that UW-Whitewater isn't able to provide their graduate assistantships with free tuition like other UW universities.
o I believe that the graduate assistant position is an essential part of what the program is trying to accomplish.
o As the program grows, it would be helpful to get answer keys and past resources from past TA's.
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