For Business Services

As the various colleges and departments at USU choose to allocate the duties of their Business Services, Graduate Program Coordinator, and other faculty and staff differently, this section will be a general guide to administrative responsibilities for the college and/or department not limited to Business Services personnel. To review the full details of the financial awards, please see the ‘For Faculty’ tab.

If you have any questions regarding financial transactions of the PDRF program or for general administrative queries, please contact the Senior Program Coordinator, Athena Dupont at athena.dupont@usu.edu.

Annual Administrative Timeline

Unless otherwise agreed upon between the department and the Office of Research, each fiscal year will follow this process:

  • July: Financial agreements prepared for each PDRF to receive funding in that academic year
  • Start of Fall term:
    • Fall scholarships pay out to student via Banner
    • Tuition waivers in place for Fall semester
    • Assistantship in place
    • Health insurance subsidy in place
  • Start of Spring:
    • Spring scholarships pay out to student via Banner
    • Tuition waivers in place for Spring semester
    • Assistantships continue
    • Health insurance subsidy in place
  • Start of Summer:
    • Tuition waivers in place if summer credits necessary
    • 12-month assistantships continue
    • Health insurance subsidy in place

Financial Agreement

Responsible party: Office of Research, Senior Program Coordinator

In July and August, the Coordinator will prepare a financial agreement for each PDRF student outlining the terms of all relevant parties’ participation in the PDRF program. This document will be signed by the student’s primary advisor, department head, and the Associate Vice President for Research. When signed, the agreement will go to all signees, to the student, and to the Business Services staff and GPC of the department. A copy of the agreement will also be added to the student’s files in the School of Graduate Studies.

The student will then be asked to submit an informal agreement where they acknowledge the terms of the agreement, specifically in understanding the financial rules and regulations of their award and in the responsibilities they have by accepting it.

While you may be asked to assist your department in confirming the accuracy of the agreement in advance of the advisor and department head signing it, no other administrative action is required on your part at this step.

Scholarship Award

Responsible party: Office of Research, Business Services team

As soon as the agreement is signed, the OR financial staff will set up scholarships in accordance with the payment schedule outlined therein. Unless otherwise agreed upon, the scholarship will be applied in two equal payments in the student’s Banner account to be disbursed on the first day of the Fall semester and the first day of the Spring semester. No departmental action is needed for scholarship payments.

Tuition Award

Responsible parties: Office of Research & School of Graduate Studies, Business Services teams

After registration has opened up each semester, the Office of Research will begin applying residential tuition waivers to cover all eligible residential tuition. As students will be registering and making changes to their credits for a period of time before and after the start of the semester, these will be periodically adjusted to reflect the correct amounts. Shortly before the start of the semester, the School of Graduate Studies will apply nonresident tuition waivers for eligible students, including PDRFs.

During this period, the student’s account may not be updated immediately and we request patience as we work to keep up with the changes they make.

For students with summer tuition listed in their Program of Study, the PDRF award of that fiscal year will cover eligible tuition. For example, a student with a 2020/21 tuition award will have any Summer 2021 credits covered by the terms of the regular tuition award. However, students must alert the Office of Research if they expect to have summer tuition before the start of that term.

We request that no department apply any tuition waivers unless that student’s financial agreement indicates that the PDRF will not receive tuition coverage from the Office of Research for that fiscal year. If the department applies a waiver in addition to the Office of Research waiver, the OR waiver will be dropped first and the department will have unnecessarily assumed that cost.

Health Insurance Subsidy

Responsible party: Department team

The department agrees to subsidize at least 80% of the student’s health care unless they choose to opt out of USU’s plan. Please work with any PDRFs and direct them through the process your department has for subsidizing graduate student health insurance.

Assistantship Award

Responsible party: Department/college/other team

Each student’s financial agreement will outline the general terms of the assistantship that is to be applied. For most students, this will be a department-level assistantship of 0.5 FTE for 9- or 12-month duration. However, in some cases, other sources of funding may be used for this match; recent examples include a School of Graduate Studies assistantship, NSF GRFP, or Ford Foundation Fellowship that take the place of the department assistantship. In those exceptions, the responsibility for processing this portion of the award will vary and should be discussed with the Office of Research team on a case-by-case basis.

For all other students who are on departmental assistantships, the Office of Research will not have a role in administering this part of the award. Provided it meets the minimum amount outlined in the financial agreement, departments should set up assistantships for PDRF students through their normal process. The Office of Research may request information about the PDRF’s assistantship, as well as general assistantship terms and amounts for non-PDRF students in the department, as needed to confirm compliance with the financial agreement.

Finally, please note that the assistantship cannot be funded through any source that originated in the Office of Research, such as faculty start-up, GEM, RC, or SPARC grants. Please reach out to the OR Business Services team if you are uncertain about the eligibility of funds your department intends to use to cover a PDRF assistantship.

Again, this guide is meant as a quick reference for the responsibilities of various parties in disbursing the awards. If you want to review the full terms and conditions of the award, please see the ‘For Faculty’ tab, and if you have questions about any part of the program or about a specific student, please contact Athena Dupont.