Research Assistants (RAs)
Academic Student Workers - SENS-UAW
Student Employment Titles and Rates (STaR)
Payroll Schedule
Federal Work Study (FWS)
📋 Job Description
Students will support ongoing research projects and substantive academic tasks associated with course work and/or faculty research.
NOTE: All Parsons RAs are stipend positions by default. If you wish to set your RA position as an hourly position, please reach out to the Parsons Operations Team.
✅ Eligibility
Students must be matriculated or enrolled full-time in a certificate program to be considered eligible for on-campus student employment, and they must also meet all federal requirements for working in the United States. Students who are on-leave or studying abroad (including Parsons Paris) are not eligible for on-campus student employment.
NOTE: The need for a physical US presence, even in the case of Research Assistant assignments that involve remote work, is a non-negotiable legal requirement as the university is not legally authorized to operate overseas.
⚙️ Process
Academic Student Workers are governed by a CBA between The New School and SENS-UAW Local 7902. As such, Research Assistants may not begin working until they have received an offer letter from Parsons Operations and an appointment letter from Human Resources confirming they have been successfully on-boarded.
I have a student selected (Direct Hire)
- Once you have selected a candidate to hire, please utilize our Research Assistant (RA) Employment Form here to request to hire your student. Each student will need one appointment letter per semester, even if they've already worked as an RA before.
- Parsons Operations sends the offer letter to students within 48 hours (2 business days) of receiving the form (students will have 10 business days to respond to the offer letter). If there are corrections needed, Parsons Ops will reach out via email to troubleshoot.
- If the student confirms, Parsons Operations will check to see if they are in the student pool (have held a position at the university before). If the student is not in the student pool, then they must fill out new hire paperwork with HR.
- International students who do not have SSNs must apply for and receive a SSN before they fill out HR paperwork (Parsons Operations will direct them on how to do this).
- Once the student has paperwork with HR, Parsons Operations will submit the appointment to HR.
- HR will send out the appointment letter to the student within 48 hours. The student may only begin working after they have received their appointment letter!
I need to search for a candidate (MyDay Search)
- If you are searching for RA candidates, you will need to initiate a candidate search on MyDay. Please fill out the Research Assistant (RA) MyDay Search Request Form here. Parsons Ops will receive your search request, and post the position to MyDay to begin your search.
- From there, Parsons Ops will coordinate with you to establish the best way to review applicants according to your preference, either by emailing individual applicant information, or sharing applicants in batches on a routine, time-based method (weekly or otherwise)
- Once you have selected a student, you will need to submit the Research Assistant (RA) Employment Form to submit your student applicant for hire (see above steps in the Direct Hire drop-down).
TIP: Before you begin working with a student, ask them to forward you their appointment letter from HR to ensure you do not violate the collective bargaining agreement (see below sample appointment letter to look for).
📄 Sample Appointment Letter
🔔 Reminders
General
- Every new term (Summer, Fall, and Spring) requires a new appointment letter.
- Please plan ahead and submit the form at least three weeks before you would like a student to work with you (the process may take longer if the student needs a SSN).
- We are unable to process lump-sum payments.
- Once HR sends the appointment letter, it can not be changed.— HR sends the appointment letter directly to the student. Please check in with the student to see if they have received the appointment letter.
- Fringe has already been accounted for if you're using your Student Research Assistant Funds. If you're using your GRF or other funds to pay students, then you would need to calculate fringe, which is 9.5% for FY27.
- The Parsons Operations Team is only able to process RA requests using Parsons cost centers (CC100....). If you're using a non-Parsons cost center, please reach out to your contact person for that cost center to follow their process.
Hours
- Weekly hours should be set in increments of hours or half-hours. The hourly rate for RAs is $31.37 for Summer 26.
- During the Fall and Spring terms, student employees may not exceed 20 hours per week (across all positions at The New School). Please note that this includes Winter Break as it is part of the Fall Term and Spring Break as it is part of the Spring term.
- During the Summer term, students may work a maximum of 35 hours per week (across all positions at The New School), as long as they are not enrolled in summer classes.
Graduated Students
- Graduating students can continue in their student positions until the end of the month in which they graduate.
- Faculty cannot hire former students as Miscellaneous/Temporary employees to continue work that falls under the Research Assistant classification.
🧑🏫 Intellectual Property Rights for Research Assistants
RAs do not own their own work; faculty owns the work. However, faculty can give attribution to the RA for their work. This would need to be discussed and agreed upon with the faculty and clarified in writing before the student accepts the position. If the student does not agree to the terms, then they can decline the position.
Please reach out to parsonsops@newschool.edu with any questions on the Parsons Research Assistant process.