Dear Graduate Student Employees:
We are pleased to announce that beginning in fall 2024 graduate student employees will receive their first paycheck on Sept. 1 and receive access to health insurance starting Aug. 1—both one month earlier than previous academic years.
These changes follow a review of current academic appointment practices initiated by University leadership and the decision to align graduate student employee appointments with the start of the academic year on Aug. 16. Historically, nine-month academic appointments for graduate student employees have begun Sept. 1, even though work begins mid-August. This required employees to work in advance of their appointment date and created issues with delayed compensation and insurance coverage, as well as delayed access to course management systems.
With this change, graduate student employees will now receive their first paycheck on Sept. 1 (for the second half of August) and will have earlier access to insurance, workers’ compensation and the University systems needed for instruction and administration. In the future, graduate student employees will have Academic Blue (SHIP) medical coverage starting Aug. 1. Graduate student employees enrolled in UT SELECT Medical, UT SELECT Dental (Delta Dental), Super Vision or other employee plans will be covered effective Aug. 16.
Many new graduate student employees will no longer need to purchase gap or supplemental student health insurance in August. New international students with benefits-eligible graduate student jobs starting Aug. 16 will no longer need to pay for August supplemental insurance if enrolled in AcademicBlue (SHIP). There will be no changes to summer insurance premium payments for 2024.
We would like to thank graduate students for your help identifying the problem with appointment dates and working with university administrators to address this issue—thank you for your patience as we work toward this important and impactful change.
