Students in graduate appointments will continue to have “meaningful work” and will continue to receive their stipends despite transitioning to remote work, according to Ohio University’s coronavirus website.
Of the 1,309 graduate students holding appointments this semester, 644 are graduate assistants, 472 are teaching assistants and 193 are research assistants, according to an email from Lisa Poston, a Graduate College budget manager and online graduate appointment system administrator. The average spring stipend for graduate appointments is $6,343.
The transition to online work looks different for graduate students in each type of position.
About half of the research assistants can complete almost all of their work remotely for several weeks, said Dr. Shawn Ostermann, associate professor and senior associate dean for research and graduate studies in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology. The other half can still make progress by reading background papers, working on their thesis or analyzing data.
Research assistants who still need access to Ohio University facilities must talk with their faculty adviser, according to the university’s coronavirus website, but Dr. Ostermann said that no more than “two or three or four” students should need access.
“I think we could survive for three weeks this way without really slowing anybody down too much,” Dr. Ostermann said. “After that, it's going to slow people down. It's going to delay graduation. But for most of them, I don't think it is. It's not that big a deal.”
Teaching assistants will continue their work while professors move classes online, said Dr. Brian McCarthy, senior associate dean for faculty, research, and graduate studies in the College of Arts and Sciences. Teaching assistants will still engage with students through Blackboard, Microsoft Teams and other online programs.
“I think, virtually, we have some type of technological solution for almost every discipline that we have,” said Dr. McCarthy.
Graduate assistants, who work in departments across campus, will work remotely unless their need to be on campus is critical, according to the university’s coronavirus website.
Remote work may help graduate assistants “rethink” higher education and student affairs, said Dr. David Nguyen, assistant professor of higher education and student affairs and program coordinator for the higher education and student affairs program.
Remote work can take away the subtleties of interpersonal relationships between students, professors and supervisors, like stepping into an office to ask a question or overhearing music from another desk, Dr. Nguyen said. Still, despite the challenges of moving online, he says students in his class are “doing the best they can.”
“I think that that's the thing that I try to drive home with the students: everyone's doing the best that they can and to the extent that you can do your best, and your best might be a little bit different than if you were in an office physically,” Dr. Nguyen said. “And that's OK. But also just knowing that you're able to take some pride in your work can go a really long way to changing your outlook towards the situation.”
