As a part of the Financial Aid package, many students are given a Graduate Assistantship, and assigned to work with one or more faculty or staff members. Each faculty member may request a student assistant for the fall and spring semesters of each year. Assistants enrolled in Brite’s M.Div., M.T.S. or M.A.T.M. programs receive a $850 stipend per semester while students in the Th.M., D.Min. or Ph.D. programs receive a $1000 stipend per semester. The stipend is paid out in one payment or in installments. Five hours of work per week is expected. Should a faculty member’s schedule for student hours vary significantly from the normal routine, they should work out an agreement with their assistant in writing. 

The faculty member has the right to recommend to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs’ office the appointment of his or her assistant and to recommend the termination of that assistant, should the latter’s work prove unacceptable. Likewise, a student assistant may resign from the position by providing two weeks’ notice to both the professor and the Associate Dean’s office. The faculty member may then choose another assistant. In all cases, the request should be directed to the Associate Dean’s office for action. Only with special permission of the Dean may a student assistant use workspace outside the faculty member’s office.

At the discretion of the faculty member, a student assistant may be assigned a key to that faculty member’s office. No other person is authorized to have a key. A key must be returned to the building deputy when the assistantship ends. Outside keys are not to be distributed to student assistants for reasons of security and protection of files.

As a Graduate Assistant, students may have access to confidential files, student grades, examinations, and other materials which require careful handling. This involves not only special responsibility, but the exercise of a high level of integrity and self-discipline. As in many other areas of student life, confidentiality is a particular concern, and it is expected that what is said and done within the boundaries of the Graduate Assistantship will be held in confidence. Any breach of this confidentiality can result in the revocation of the Assistantship and the implementation of other disciplinary procedures.