School of Writing, Literature, and Film

GTA Employee Information

Welcome to OSU’s School of Writing, Literature, and Film and the graduate teaching assistant (GTA) program.  We are very glad that you will be working and studying with us.

This page includes information to help you begin planning for fall.  As always, if you have questions along the way, please contact us (sara.jameson@oregonstate.edu).

On this page you will find references to

• Filing Paperwork for Hiring
• GTA orientations – required
• As a Student – Registering for Classes
• Required Composition Pedagogy Courses
• Advising and Scheduling

Paperwork for Hiring:

GTAs must file hiring paperwork with the Arts and Sciences Business Center.  When you are in Corvallis, please go to the Arts and Sciences Business Center in Hoveland Hall Room 008 to pick up your new hire paperwork.  Completing this paperwork by September 1st ensures that your September check will be issued on time.  Your pay starts on September 16^th, so you will receive half a month’s pay in that first check.  You will need to show your photo ID and a form of ID that is valid for filing an I-9 tax form.  Direct deposit is highly encouraged.  To sign up for direct deposit, please provide a voided check from your bank.

Materials specific to your teaching will come by email.

Below is some initial information for you as a student and as a teacher. First, the important dates:

• Monday, September 12:  Graduate school orientation @ CH2M HILL Alumni Center. We strongly encourage you to attend. For more information, check their web site.
• Friday, September 16: Your teaching contract begins. You should be in Corvallis ready to work. This will be a time to finish preparing for Orientation.
• Monday, September 19 – Friday, September 23: GTA Orientation all week, Moreland Hall.
• Monday, September 26: Classes begin.

As a student

Registering for classes:

MA/GTAs should consult the Graduate Program Coordinator, Peter Betjemann (peter.betjemann@oregonstate.ed) for program of study advising (initial group advising for first-year MA students will be done in the Intro to Graduate Studies course on September 27). MFA/GTAs should consult Director, Karen Holmberg (for MFA questions) at karen.holmberg@oregonstate.edu.

As part of your contract, GTAs are required to register for 12 credit hours each term.  However, some of those 12 hours per term can (and should) be “thesis hours” (ENG 503 for MAs or WR 503 for MFAs), especially for those of you who are first-year graduate students. Courses with a “0” in the middle other than thesis hours require departmental approval, so to register online for any of these courses, please notify Office Manager Ann Leen (Ann.Leen@oregonstate.edu) first, and she will make it possible for you to register. Alternately, you can come to the School office in person to obtain an override form.

To get signed up for the first term, you must register for the required 2-credit practicum taught by Susan Meyers (WR 517).  MAs are also required to sign up for ENG 514: Introduction to Graduate Studies, taught by Peter Betjemann on TR 10:00-11:20 (CRN 18228), while Fiction MFAs will register for their workshop (WR 524) taught by Keith Scribner and Poetry MFAs will register for their workshop (WR 541) taught by Karen Holmberg. The CRN’s to register are listed here: http://catalog.oregonstate.edu/CourseList.aspx?subjectcode=WR&campus=corvallis&level=grad

All students should then add one additional class and make up the remaining hours with non-course thesis credits (MAs: ENG 503; MFAs: WR 503). 

Composition Pedagogy Courses: 

In support of the GTA fellowship that you have received, the School provides the required practicum (WR 517) for training.  In addition, the School requires that GTAs take at least one academic course in the discipline of rhetoric and composition—the discipline in which you are teaching.  Because these courses are meant to enhance your teaching, we strongly recommend that you take at least one during your first year of teaching.

Various courses that satisfy the pedagogy requirement will be offered next year. In the fall, the pertinent option is WR 512, The Teaching of Writing, taught by Dr. Lisa Ede.

Online fall registration for graduate students is now open.  You will use the 9-digit OSU student ID number on your acceptance letter.  You do not have to know all your courses in order to begin the registration process.

To register online, please follow these steps:

1. Go to the OSU Home Page
2. Choose “Student Online Services”
3. Then click “Online Services Quick Login.”
4. Log in with your ID number and default GAP General Access Pin number (which is your birth date in format: MMDDYY)
5. You will be asked to change this GAP number to another six-digit combination.
6. Be sure to write down this new GAP number, as you will use it all year. 
7. After you reset your GAP, you will have access to register.
8. Once you register, even if only for a single class, such as the required practicum WR 517, you can set up your ONID email account.

Delivering Your Schedule to the School:

Once you have registered, please send us your class schedule.  Because your WR 121 teaching assignment must fit around your graduate course schedule, we need everyone to email their class schedules to Ann Leen at ann.leen@oregonstate.edu as soon as possible, but no later than August 5^th, 2012.

WR 121 teaching schedules cannot be assigned until every graduate teaching assistant’s class schedule has been submitted.  New GTAs only teach a single course in fall term.