Graduate Assistants

1. Complete a GA hiring request form-which will need to be approved by:
   • The department director who will approve the weekly hours requested and the overall purpose of the GA position.
   • The student employment manager who will verify supervisor training.
   • The fiscal director who will confirm funding availability.
2. Once the staff supervisor receives approval for their GA, the requested position is required to be posted on Handshake and include all necessary position description details.
   
   • Supervisors should interview at least 2 students per position.
3. After you have identified the final candidate, report a hire in Handshake which will trigger the student employment office to process the hiring request and complete any necessary paperwork with the student.
   
   • Be sure to follow-up with those students who applied but were not offered a position.
4. Once GSEP Student Employment Office has received the direct hire agreement or direct hire report, we will determine if the student needs to complete hiring requirements. The student will be invited to complete a New Student Employee Orientation which includes completing the Form I-9, Form W-4, and GSEP Student Employment Policies. The GSEP Student Employment Office will communicate directly with the student to complete these requirements and will keep you apprised of the application's status.
5. Students can begin working once you have received the final confirmation from the Student Employment Office. 

The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) requires verification of all employee identity and eligibility to work within three days of employment. The I‐9 form provides a list of approved documents to review (see below).

• List of Approved Documents for Verification and Eligibility

• All verification and eligibility documents must be the ORIGINAL documents, NOT photocopies or faxes.

• Verify in the Student Hiring Module that the student’s I-9 status says, “Current.”

Examples of Commonly Used Verification Document Combinations:

• Passport (Serves as both Verification of Identity and Eligibility)

• Driver’s License + Social Security Card

• Driver’s License + Certified Copy of Birth Certificate

Complete instructions for posting your position on PepPro can be found here. 

The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, as amended, prohibits employers (including schools) from accepting voluntary services from any paid employee. Any student employee must be paid for all hours worked. 

• Students may work up to (but not more than) 19.75 hours per week during period of enrollment. This means 19.75 hours total for all on-campus jobs

• California labor law requires overtime of one and one-half the regular rate of pay for work:

  •         Over 8 hours in one 24 hour period
  •         Over 40 hours in one 7 day period
  •         On the 7th straight day of the pay week (Sunday)

• At Pepperdine, employees are entitled to one 15 minute break for every 4 hours of consecutive work.

• Employees are entitled to a one-half hour unpaid meal period for consecutive work of 5 hours or more.

• If an employee works more than 6 consecutive hours without taking a one-half hour meal period, they are entitled to a 1 hour meal penalty which is automatically calculated by the Kronos timekeeping system.

A student graduating at the end of the spring term may continue working as a student employee through the last pay cycle of the fiscal year.

To comply with the new California law, Healthy Workplace Healthy Family Act of 2014 (AB 1522), as of July 1st, 2015, all student employees of Pepperdine University became eligible to accrue sick leave. 

 Accruals are based on actual hours worked in the following manner:

• Leave will start accruing on the first day of work at the rate of.033 hours of sick time per hour worked.
• Student employees can accrue up to a 48 hour maximum per calendar year.
• Student employees can only take a maximum of 24 hours per calendar year (subject to available time.) The balances, if applicable, will rollover to the following calendar year.

How and when you can use Accrued Sick Leave:

• Students can utilize sick time ONLY after accruing at least one hour of sick leave.
• When using sick leave, students must take a minimum of 1 hour of sick leave at a time, in one-hour increments. (Example: if you have accrued 5.333 hours of sick leave, you can use a minimum of 1 hour or a maximum of 5 hours).
• Students can utilize sick time ONLY if they are unable to work their assigned shift due to illness or a medical appointment AND cannot make-up the shift on another day during the same work week.

Other important notes:

• Accrued sick leave is NOT to be used as paid vacation time or study time
• Accrued sick leave is NOT to be forecasted, unless it is for a medical appointment set in advance and the hours CANNOT be made up during this same work week.
• Accrued sick leave balances are not paid out at the end of student work assignments.