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Office of Human Resources: Illinois State University

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Offer Letter Template

The Offer Letter

The appointing unit will make the assistantship offer in writing by way of e-mail. The potential graduate assistant should accept or deny the offer by replying to the e-mail offer. Special conditions of the appointment should be noted in the offer letter (e.g., hours to be worked when classes are not in session). The appointing unit should indicate the calendar the GA will follow, academic or administrative. If the GA follows the administrative calendar, they are expected to work during breaks other than scheduled University closure. University closure dates can be found at http://www.vpfp.ilstu.edu/calendars/index.shtml A link to the University closure information can be added to the offer letter to provide additional information to the GA.

To ensure two (2) signatures are present for GA offers, the following individuals should either send or be copied on all GA offers:

  • Academic Unit - Two signatures are Graduate Coordinator and Department Chairperson/School Director.
  • Administrative Unit - Two signatures are the individual making the offer and their supervisor.

Department Chairpersons/School Directors, as part of the appointment procedure, need to inform International Admissions of any assistantship offers for international students including financial details. Assistantships affect an international student’s declaration of finances needed to issue an F-1 visa.

Offer Letter Process

  1. Open a new e-mail message.
  2. Address the e-mail to the graduate assistant per the e-mail address they provided on their application.
  3. Copy the message per the guidelines above to ensure two signatures are present for the GA hire.
  4. In the subject line of the e-mail, include the text 'GA Offer' followed by the GAs name.
  5. Download the offer letter template.
  6. Copy the text from the offer letter template into the e-mail and update accordingly. Text in brackets, < >, should be replaced with the appropriate information regarding the offer. Appointing units should not delete any text from the offer letter template.
  7. Once the offer is accepted, forward the acceptance and the original offer in the same message to
.