Handbook and Policies

Student Handbooks

• MA Program Handbook
• PhD Program Handbook
• CMLT Program Handbook
• MFA Program Handbook

Leave of Absence Funding Policy

Effective AY 2014-15, the Graduate Studies Office (GSO) may permit deferment of TAship funding due to an approved Leave of Absence (LOA) in cases of childbirth and serious illness for a maximum of one semester. Students may request a LOA with deferment of funding due to childbirth for a maximum of one semester only if they have not already availed themselves of the Graduate School's Parental Accommodation policy. The English GSO shall not consider for approval any requests for deferments of TAship funding due to a LOA without being provided with official documentation by a licensed medical authority in support of the request of a LOA. In addition, no deferment of TAship funding shall be granted for any LOA approved during the first semester of a student’s graduate program. The Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) may consider requests for a LOA with deferment of funding for a subsequent semester filed no later than half-way into that given semester. Any deferment of TAship funding must be taken immediately, continuously, and entirely following the last semester of the student’s original funding package. If a graduate student is granted a LOA after the beginning of the semester, only the number of pay periods not yet completed on the TAship stipend can be deferred to a later. During the semester to which funding is deferred, the student may apply for a partial lectureship to cover the remainder of the semester if benefits are required for the entire semester. Any departmental fellowship money supplementing the TAship stipend but not yet disbursed during the semester of a LOA can be deferred for the semester immediately following the regular expiration of the student’s departmental financial aid package and will be paid out only to students who return and claim the accompanying deferred TA funding. Students currently enrolled in the PhD program who have lost their TAship funding for the period of a LOA, or students who have been informed that they would lose their TAship funding for the period of a LOA, can request a retroactive deferment. The same standards shall apply to the DGS’s approval of retroactive requests for deferments of TAship funding as do to the approval of current requests.