The Graduate School
SRM Graduate Assistant

About SRM GA Positions

The Department of Sustainable Resources Management (SRM) has available Graduate Assistantships (G.S.E.U. represented bargaining unit positions) to assist in the teaching of SRM courses and to assist faculty members with research.  The courses GAs may be assigned to include: Economics; Accounting; Natural Resources Policy; Statistics; Forest Ecology; Silviculture; Recreation; Water Resources; Natural Resources Management; Soils; Construction Management; Sustainable Energy Management; GIS; Natural Resources Measurements; Meteorology; Plant identification.

Responsibilities and Benefits

Assistantships may be awarded for one semester or both semesters of the academic year. A full-time assistantship requires assisting professors for 20 hours per week; students receive a full-time stipend plus tuition scholarship (students are required to pay various service and activity fees). Half-time assistantships are for 10 hours per week, and come with a half-time stipend and half of a tuition scholarship (students are responsible for paying the remaining half of their tuition as well as various service and activity fees). Assistantship responsibilities may include: attending class and/or labs, tutoring students, keeping office hours, assisting with faculty-directed research and/or projects, and grading exams or other student work. Preference for GA positions is given to MS and PhD students. All applicants must have a SRM faculty member as their Major Professor or Co-Major Professor. 

All students awarded assistantships must participate in the two-day Graduate Assistant Colloquium on Teaching and Learning that is offered by ESF before classes begin in late August – unless they have previously attended the colloquium. Students employed as GAs can obtain health insurance through ESF.

SRM uses the following criteria for awarding assistantships:

1. The applicant's ability to do graduate work at a ESF, as expressed through academic achievement and professional promise.
2. The applicant's previous educational and experiential qualifications as they relate to specific SRM courses.
3. The applicant's level of study (preference is given to MS and PhD students).

Additional Information

SRM is aware of the financial hardships that graduate education places on students. We are concerned and will continue to do what we can to provide funding to our students. We do our best to support as many students as possible but we also take into consideration the desire to deliver the best curriculum possible. However, the needs are always greater than the resources available. Thus, a Masters student can receive up to four (4) semesters of graduate teaching assistantship support and a Ph.D. student/candidate can receive up to six (6) semesters of graduate teaching assistantship support. We encourage each student to pursue alternative funding opportunities. Many times the best funding opportunities are those that students develop with faculty members seeking talented students to support their funded research studies. To this end, there is no substitute for personal initiative and a strong working relationship with faculty.

Graduate Assistant Application

Contact

Dr. David Newman
Graduate Education Coordinator
 dnewman@esf.edu