1. Navigate to _2022-23-GSR Appointment Letter Template google doc

2. Create a copy of the template (see FAQ: How can I create a copy of the template to send appointment letters manually?)

3. Update all relevant data points for your specific GSR(s)

   1. Note: See below if you’d like to utilize the Letter Field Template for sending via mail merge

   2. Tip: The fields that need updates are bolded and in double braces (e.g.: {{Current Date}}, {{Job Code}}, {{Job FTE OR}})

4. Email completed offer letter to your GSR(s)

5. Access to Google Form for returning signed appointment letters is still available as a tab in the GSR Appointment Letter Generation spreadsheet. Please see Historical Process (letters sent 7/13/2023 and prior) for guidance on how to access.

• Pay special attention to the Summer 2023 appointment end dates. Students should not be employed over 50% beyond the end of Summer quarter (9/24). Examples can be found on collab at Appendix: 100% Employment During Summer

• Only Job Code 3266 - GSR-No Rem should be used during Summer months (i.e. July 1 - September 30)

• Reports To Employee as reference in the letter is the GSRs supervisor/PI and not necessarily the Reports To field in UCPath

• Personal Time Off (PTO): GSRs earn 1 day of PTO per month worked the equivalent of 25% FTE (see FAQ: How do I determine the PTO days earned based upon appointment details for offer letter?)

We’ve created a handy template that lists out the appointment letter fields and also includes the calculations we utilized on the generation spreadsheet, including PTO Number of Days, JOB FTE, Salary Step Number, and Salary Step Monthly Calculated Rate.

The google sheet is View Only but you can download to Excel to utilize for your manual offer letter generation.

1. Navigate to _GSR Appointment Letter Fields Template

2. Select File > Download > Microsoft Excel

3. Open spreadsheet in Excel and use the Letter Fields tab as a template to send your offer letters via mail merge or just to help track the appointment details for each of your GSRs

4. See the PTO Calculator/Examples tab if you’d like more info on how to confirm earned PTO days based on appointment criteria

For general contract FAQs, please see Implementation of New Labor Contracts for GSRs, ASEs and Postdocs

To submit questions specifically about the appointment letters, please use this Google Form.

Effective Spring 2023, all hiring units should send offer letters to graduate students hired as Graduate Student Researchers (GSRs). 

Starting Friday, July 14, 2023, the hiring department should create a copy of the 2022-23-GSR Appointment Letter Template, update all relevant information, and send the offer letter to students.

Please click here to see the template.
The template is based on the templates issued by UCOP March 2023. As updates to the template could be made in the future, please refer back to this template when creating future letters throughout the Summer.

You can utilize the 2022-23-GSR Appointment Letter Template to send a GSR appointment letter manually. Ensure you are updating all the required data points before sending. Please see instructions below for how to save a copy and make updates for yourself. There are 2 options: make a copy and save to your personal/departmental Google Drive or download as a word doc.

Recommended: Make a Copy

1. Navigate to 2022-23-GSR Appointment Letter Template

2. From the toolbar, select File > Make a Copy

3. On the “Copy document” pop-up, rename as desired and save to the new Folder within your personal/departmental Google Drive.

   1. Note: Copies saved to the Folder it is currently saved in will not be accessible

4. Select Make a Copy

5. Navigate to where you saved the copy

Alternative: Download

1. Navigate to 2022-23-GSR Appointment Letter Template

2. From the toolbar, select File > Download > Microsoft Word (.docx) or preferred format

3. Navigate to downloads folder

Tip: If you have numerous letters to send, we recommend utilizing a Mail Merge to create and/or send out the letters.

Yes. Work is already in progress to make these enhancements, anticipated for use beginning with Fall 2023 appointments.

As each hiring department and graduate program have unique administrative structures, this decision should be made by departmental/program leadership. For reference, the contacts that were utilized on GSR offer letters for Spring 2023 and Summer 2023 thus far are listed at GSR Appt Letters Hiring Department POC.

Note: all sheets require login using UCSD credentials, and change history is automatically logged.

Yes. We ask hiring departments to send GSR offer letters to all graduate students they are hiring into GSR titles.

We recognize the appointment letter process for trainees/fellows has been pending review in anticipation of additional guidance from UCOP since Spring. We appreciate your continued patience and GEPA will reach out separately to units with contract-covered trainees and fellows with guidance for the remainder of the Summer 2023 quarter.

No. If the information in the letter you’ve already sent to the GSR was accurate and contained all contract-required information, you do not need to resend letters for Summer.

Please send an updated letter to your GSR(s) utilizing the 2022-23-GSR Appointment Letter Template.

Alternatively, if you have a copy of the original offer letter that was sent, you can make the desired updates to that copy.

Please send an offer letter to your GSR(s) utilizing the 2022-23-GSR Appointment Letter Template.

GSRs earn 1 day of PTO per month worked the equivalent of 25% FTE. To determine if you student worked the equivalent of 25% for the duration of any particular month, see the calculation below:

Formula: Days Worked / Working Days in Month x FTE

• Days worked: count all weekdays the GSR worked during the particular month, including holidays (ex: 9/1 - 9/15 would be 11 days worked)

• Working Days in Month: Refer to Payroll’s Monthly Working Hours 2023 calendar for total of days per month (ex: September 2023 has 21 working days in the month)

• FTE: what is the FTE for this appointment during the month in question

Alternatively, we have created a helpful calculator to determine the number of PTO days based upon days worked and the appointment FTE. Please see the PTO Calculator/Examples tab of the following spreadsheet: _GSR Appointment Letter Fields > PTO Calculator/Examples. This spreadsheet is View Only so you will need to download (File > Download > Microsoft Excel) in order to edit.

• Examples:

  • A grad student is employed as a 25% GSR from 7/1/2023 - 9/30/2023. This GSR would be eligible for 3 days of PTO based upon their appointment details.

  • A grad student is employed as a 50% GSR from 8/14/2023 - 8/31/2023. This GSR would be eligible for 1 day of PTO based upon their appointment details. In August, they worked 14 days / 23 working days x 50% = 30.43% is the FTE equivalent the GSR worked.

If you are hiring a JDP student, please ensure you are using the 2022-23-GSR Appointment Letter Template provided by GEPA and reviewed by Labor Relations. Hiring departments must use this letter template. Note: it does not matter if the hiring department is not a JDP, the student’s major code is the determining factor here. If you have any questions about this process, please open a ticket via email to grademployment@ucsd.edu as soon as possible.

Establish a single point of contact (POC) for each hiring department, and record it in the Google Sheet found here: Hiring Department POC

• Enter the POC name/email (columns B:D), as well as the name/email of the person making the update and the date the update was made (columns E:H).

• This single POC will be used for all appointment letters generated for the hiring department (see FAQ below).

• The hiring department is defined by the UCPath appointment; the list contained in the POC sheet matches EAH data. It does not list all individual graduate programs.

Note: The Hiring Department POCs carried over from Spring 2023. Please review POCs for your department(s) and update for Summer 2023 as appropriate.

Determine which departmental administrative staff will help to update or validate data used to generate appointment letters, and record it in the Google Sheet found here: Access to Letter Data

• Enter the names and UCSD emails for departmental administrative staff (columns A:B), as well as the name/email of the person making the update (column C).

• These contacts will be granted edit access to the spreadsheet that contains the data which will be used to generate appointment letters.

• Do request access only for those who require it to complete this time-sensitive project. Do not request access for more individuals than are necessary. There is sensitive payroll data contained within this sheet; if other staff or faculty need general information, please consider the reports at http://bah.ucsd.edu instead.

Note: if you have already been granted access (i.e. your name is listed on the “Access to Letter Data” tab and columns D & E list “Complete”), you can access the Letter Generation spreadsheet by clicking the link in cell D2 of this tab.

Note: see detailed instructions below for the “Letter Data” tab

The EAH contains data only for existing appointments that have been entered into UCPath. We recognize that some necessary data in UCPath will not be available or updated before the generation of appointment letters.

Be prepared to enter the following information in the Letter Data spreadsheet:

• Job Start Date

• Job Expected End Date

• Reports To Employee

  • Note: this must be the name of the actual supervisor of the position, not an administrative contact.

• Reports To Work Email Address

  • Note: this must be the email of the actual supervisor of the position, not an administrative contact.

• Identity Building Location Current

• Job FTE

• Salary Step Number

• Job Code

  • Note: especially for Summer 2023, please ensure the Job Code is accurate

Note: specific instructions on how to enter data on the Letter Data spreadsheet are on the first tab of the spreadsheet titled “Instructions”. Thanks!

Note: see detailed instructions below for the “New Appointment Template” tab

The EAH contains data only for existing appointments that have been entered into UCPath. We recognize that some appointments will not be entered in UCPath before the generation of appointment letters.

Be prepared to enter the following information in the Letter Data spreadsheet:

• Employee ID

• Employee Preferred Display Name Current

• Employee Work Email Address Current

• Department

• Job Code

• Job FTE

• Salary Step Number

• Job Start Date

• Job Expected End Date

• Reports To Employee

• Reports To Work Email Address

• Identity Building Location Current

Note: specific instructions on how to enter data on the Letter Data spreadsheet are on the first tab of the spreadsheet titled “Instructions”. Thanks!

After department review, the steps require action by GEPA FSU staff and cannot be completed independently by hiring department or graduate program staff.

Upcoming Sessions for Summer 2023:

Friday, June 2, 2023
9:00 am-9:50 am via Zoom <--- just added!
https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/92503099795

Wednesday, May 31, 2023
9:00 am-9:50 am via Zoom AND 2:00 pm-2:50 pm via Zoom
https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/92503099795

Past Sessions for Spring 2023:

Thursday, March 30, 2023
8:30 am-12:00p via Zoom
https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/96075202204

Wednesday, March 29, 2023
8:30 am-12:00p via Zoom
https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/96075202204

Past Sessions:
Monday, March 27, 2023
1:00 pm-2:30 pm via Zoom
https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/96075202204

Tuesday, March 28, 2023
9:00 am-10:00 am via Zoom AND 3:00 pm-4:00 pm via Zoom
https://ucsd.zoom.us/j/96075202204

The working sessions will not be recorded.

Here is a rough overview of how the GSR appointment letters were generated for Spring 2023 and will continue to be generated for Summer 2023 through 7/13/2023. For GSR offer letters needing sent after 7/13/2023, please see Best Practice for Sending GSR Offer Letters, effective Friday, July 14, 2023.

Image Added

These instructions below are a summary of the process. Thorough processing instructions can be found on the “Instructions” tab of the “_GSR Appointment Letter Generation 2023” spreadsheet.

“Letter Data” tab: Pre-Existing Appointments in UCPath

1. Hiring Department reviews Letter Data tab and updates data as necessary

2. Once review is complete/updates have been made, hiring department updates the Department Review section in columns E-G

3. FSU will review Department Review status and send letters to those with status “Ready to Send” in columns E-G regularly

   1. Note: if it has been more than 3 business days since you updated status of “Ready to Send”, please tag Kacy Cashatt in a comment

   2. Note: FSU will not take action on line items with department review status of “Pending Review” nor “DO NOT Issue Letter”

4. Once letters are sent, a PDF of the letter will be generated in columns E-F and date the letter was sent will be reflected in column G.

“New Appointment Template” tab: Blank template for SU23 GSR appointments not on “Letter Data” tab

1. Hiring Department completes all relevant payroll fields

   1. Note: columns S-AI and AO that are not highlighted (white) should be completed by department

2. Hiring Department double-checks that based upon data entered, information in the orange highlighted fields (columns I-R) is accurate

3. Once entry is complete, hiring department updates the Department Review section in columns E-G

4. FSU will review Department Review status and send letters to those with status “Ready to Send” in columns E-G regularly

   1. Notes:

      1. If it has been more than 3 business days since you updated status of “Ready to Send”, please tag Kacy Cashatt in a comment

      2. FSU will not take action on line items with department review status of “Pending Review” nor “DO NOT Issue Letter”

      3. FSU will move these line items to the “Letter Data” tab and send out the letters.

5. Once letters are sent, a PDF of the letter will be generated in columns E-F of the “Letter Data” tab and the date the letter was sent will be reflected in column G.

“Student Acceptance Responses” tab

• In the Appointment Letter, students are advised to return a copy of their signed letter via Google Form. Those Google Form responses can be found on the “Student Acceptance Responses” tab for your reference.

• Although the Google Form is available for students to submit their responses, it is not a requirement. If a student has access issues with the Google Form, they can submit the signed letter directly to the hiring department.

Note: You can see the draft instructions here for a preview of the steps in the process.