Undergraduate Assistant and Professorial Assistant

Selecting the Employee

The first stage in processing an undergraduate assistant or professorial assistant (referred to as a UA/PA throughout this document) is to select the employee. When hiring a UA/PA you must use the students' StudentID. The system verifies hiring eligibility against student information.

For people with existing appointments, it shows information on those appointments grouped by PERNR and sorted with the most recent appointments first, so you don’t over-allocate someone. Termination records are also included. If the appointment dates entered fall after all current appointments, only termination records appear.

When someone has existing UA/PA appointments for the time period indicated, a Yes/No question appears asking if you wish to edit an existing UA/PA appointment.

To select the employee

1. Click on Actions > HR/Payroll Forms & Cost Redistributions.
2. Choose Create a New Appointment/Assignment.
3. Choose Undergraduate or Professorial Assistant.
4. Click Start Employee Process.
5. Enter the StudentID.
6. Enter the Start Date and End Date for the assignment.
7. Click the Search Employee button.
8. New hires will receive prompts regarding Social Security Number:
   1. For Citizens or Permanent Residents, enter valid Social Security Number (SSN)
   2. For Non-Citizens/Eligible for Aide, you will be prompted with the questions "Do you have a valid SSN?"
      1. If yes, select "Yes", enter valid SSN.
      2. If no, select "No", A system derived SSN will be generated for the employee.
9. Existing employees will be prompted with the question "Do you wish to edit an existing appointment?"
   1. If prompted, select No to indicate that you do not wish to edit an existing assignment.
10. Click the Create Position button.Creating the Position

Creating the Position

The next step is to create the position into which the undergrad will be appointed.

Position Attributes

This step provides information specific to this position. Fields on this screen change based upon selections.

1. Enter the Organizational Unit. Press enter to populate the organizational unit name.
2. Select the appropriate Job Title.
3. The Employment Percent will default based upon the job title selected. However, if selecting Undergraduate Assistant I or II, you may change the employment percent between 12.5% and 25%.
4. Fill in the Course and Nature of Assist information (Required on all new appointments).
5. Click the Next Step Supervisor button when finished.

Supervisor

Search for and select the Supervisor Position number. If there is more than one entry for the person, choose the entry whose dates correspond to the hiring dates. Click the Position Overview button when finished. A valid supervisor must be assigned before proceeding.

Position Overview

The last step in creating the position is the Position Overview. Review the position information for accuracy, clicking the tabs to view each subject. You may change editable fields as needed.  Once you have determined the position is correct, click the button that indicates the type of action this will be (ie. Hire, Rehire, Add Assignment) to proceed.  The button name displays the appropriate process based on the person’s status with the university:

• Hire Employee, if the person is new to the university.
• Re-Hire Employee, if the person was previously employed by the university but has had a break in service.
• Add Assignment, if the person is currently employed by the university.
• Reappointment, if the person has a current assignment being extended into a subsequent semester.

 

Fill out the Form

Saving the Form

If at any point you wish to save the form and finish it later, click the Save Draft button at the bottom of the window. The system saves a draft of the form to your HR/Payroll Inbox. At any time, you can click the link in the HR/Payroll Inbox to open the form and complete it.

Navigation

Click any step in the Navigation Bar to go directly to that section of the form. 

• Use the Tab key on the keyboard to move from field to field.
• Where you see a search button (two overlapping boxes), you can press the F4 key to open the search window, rather than clicking on the button.
• Click the Download PDF link in the upper right corner of the form at any time to generate a PDF of the form.
• Click on the Forms and Workflow Path menu in the upper right corner of the window to view:
  • Links to policies and procedures that may apply
  • Forms that can be attached and submitted
  • The Workflow Path for the form

 

Personal Details

Data is populated here from Campus Solutions.

1. Action:  (Displays the type of hiring process/action.)
2. Title: (If applicable, select from options from drop-down. Mr., Ms, etc.) 
3. First Name 
4. Middle Name
5. Last Name 
6. Suffix: (If applicable, select from options from drop-down. II, Jr, etc.) 
7. Gender 
8. StudentID
9. Citizenship
10. I-9 Expiry Date

 

Verify that the name matches the name on the Social Security card. All undergraduate and professorial assistants who have not been employed by the University or have had a break in service, regardless of citizenship, must have a completed Form I-9 on file. The Form I-9 must be completed within three days of the hire date and the hard copy sent to central HR. Central HR will not approve the form until they receive the hard copy of the I-9. The form will display whether a valid I-9 is currently on file for the student being processed.

Organizational Assignment

The position information shown here cannot be edited. If any information listed here is incorrect, you must start again from the beginning.

Pay and Cost Distribution

For pay and cost distribution, you enter the Pay Period Salary amount (the amount the UA/PA will be paid each biweekly period), the different funding lines, and the dates for each funding source. The system then helps you compute the amounts to fund from each source based on either amount or percent.

To calculate stipend

1. Enter the Amount in the box provided.
2. Press Enter. The system calculates the Total Stipend.

To enter funding lines

1. Click on the + to enter a funding line.
2. Enter a Start Date and End Date in the boxes provided.
3. Search for and select a Fund. If you type the account number, press Enter after typing it to default the other required accounting information.
4. If necessary, search for and select other funding elements.
   1. If no sub-account is entered, WBS Element defaults to “No_Sub-Account.”
   2. If no functional area is entered, the value will default to "99999999".
   3. Click OK to add the funding line.
5.  Repeat the above steps for each additional funding line.

To edit a funding line, click on the pencil icon.

To remove a funding line, click on the x.

To validate cost distribution

1. Click the Compute Cost Distribution button. The system creates the correct funding lines for each funding period. If only a single fund and period is selected, it populates the Amount and Pct (Percentage).
2. Do any combination of the following to edit each line until you reach full funding for each period:
   1. To enter an Amount, click Edit Amount if necessary and enter an amount.
   2. To enter a Percentage, click Edit Percent if necessary and enter a percent.
   3. To calculate an amount based on a percent, click the Validate Cost Distribution button.
   4. To calculate a percent based on an amount, click the Validate Cost Distribution button.

Green or red indicators appear in the second column indicating whether or not the person is fully funded for that period.

If you need to add accounts once you’ve started computing the cost distribution or you need to change the pay period salary, click the Change/Edit Cost Distribution button. This reopens your entries and returns you to editing mode so that you can add additional funding lines or change the pay period salary.

Additional Information

Select either Yes or No - Does the applicant have relatives working in the same department?  

If Yes, the Conflict of Interest form must be faxed to the number on the form or attached to this form.  In the Forms & Workflow Path dropdown located in upper right corner is a link to the Conflict of Interest form.

 

Ad Hoc Approvers

The form can be submitted to Ad Hoc Approvers (2 maximum).  If more than 2 Ad Hoc Approvers are entered, you will receive a hard stop error upon clicking "Send" when submitting the form into workflow.  To add Ad Hoc Approver:

1. Click on the + sign.
2. Enter the MSU NetID.
   1. Alternatively, you can search by employee name by clicking on the search button (overlapping boxes) or hitting F4 on your keyboard.
3. Click Ok.

Notes

To enter Notes:

1. Enter notes in the field.
2. Click on the > (right arrow) to submit.
   1. To delete a comment that has been submitted, click on the "Delete" link above your comment.
   2. To edit a comment that has been submitted, click the "Edit" link above your comment.  Edit your comment in the field above.  Click on the > (right arrow) to resubmit.

Acknowledgement Section

The acknowledgement section must be completed in order to submit the form into workflow. You will be prompted to certify that you verify the form is complete to the best of your knowledge. To do this, click on the box next to the statement “I verify this form is complete to the best of my knowledge”.

Once the certification has been completed, the form will display any important messages that require your review and acknowledgement. Please review each message carefully and acknowledge the message by checking the box that appears next to it. All messages must be acknowledged before the form can be submitted.

Attachments

There are no required attachments for hiring a UA/PA., but additional documentation may be needed by MSU Human Resources to finalize the hiring action (such as Conflict of Interest or CPT/OPT).  You have the option of attaching a document to the form. Forms & Workflow Path, in the upper right of the screen,  provide links to policies and procedures that may apply, and to forms that can be attached and submitted. Review this information as needed.

To upload an attachment

1. Select the attachment being uploaded from the Attachment Type drop-down list.
2. Click on the + sign to locate and select the attachment.
   1. Alternatively, you can drag and drop the attachment to the attachment upload section denoted with a paper icon.

Repeat this process for each additional attachment. 

Submit Form

Review the completed form, making any needed changes to the information. 

If desired, generate a PDF by clicking the Download PDF button. The PDF version of the form opens in a new window and can be saved or printed. 

Click the Send button to have the system perform a final check of the information and route the completed form for approval  If there are hard stop errors that need to be corrected before submission, the errors will appear upon clicking Send. If hard stop errors appear:

1. Correct the errors.
2. Complete the Acknowledgement Section of the form.
3. Click Send to submit into workflow

Upon successful submission, the HR/Payroll system displays a process reference number.      

The form then enters workflow. The form routes for all unit approvals, then goes to central HR. Central HR reviews the form, verifies receipt of the hard copy Form I-9, conducts the background check, then approves the form to update the HR/Payroll system.

As the form routes for approvals, Approvers are able to view the form via the Summary Screen or as a PDF by clicking the Download PDF button. 

Attachments are an important part of the appointment process. To ensure that all appropriate attachments are available to all approvers, Approvers cannot add or remove attachments. If attachments must be changed, the approver should reject the form back to the initiator.