Collective bargaining agreement
There is a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) for PhD and masters students enrolled and working in the Graduate Arts and Sciences and Sustainability and Social Justice (formerly International Development, Community, and Environment [IDCE]) programs who are employed to provide instructional or research services, including teaching assistants, graduate instructors, part-time instructors, graduate teaching assistants, graduate research assistants, course assistants, research assistants, and researchers. Please review the CBA in full; it details compensation and various benefits, including sick and leave time.
Union stewards
Union stewards assigned to various academic departments will be in touch with students about union membership. This is not handled through The Office of Student Employment. Union dues will be taken out of union employee paychecks (along with taxes). There is a Canvas site created for union student employees; the stewards add union employees to the site. Stewards advocate for union student employees in a variety of ways. Questions on union eligibility, rights, dues, and other matters should be addressed to your union steward.
Union Stewards: Geography, Clark Labs, MSGIS: Mikayla Schappert; Physics, Chemistry, BCMB, Biology: Thomas Roehl; HGS, History, English, Education, SSJ (non-MSGIS): Andy Burnstein; Psychology and Economics: Maddie Logan
Onboarding
You will receive your onboarding packet via email from clarku@interviewexchange.com with the subject line “Your Onboarding Process at – Clark University [New Hire Student].” Please complete all necessary forms online as instructed. For more information about onboarding, visit our Bring Your IDs to Clark page. If you do not have a Social Security Number (SSN), review our Student Employment Verification Policy on Page 9 of the Student Employment Handbook or check your email when you are hired!
Compensation
The AY 25-26 nine-month appointment salary for all departments except for the English department is $30,313. The salary for the English department is $12,648. The hourly rate for AY 25-26 is $20.36.
The 12-month salary (only for graduate workers with complete external funding) is $40,417 for all departments except for the English department, which is $16,864.
Pay cycles
Students are paid biweekly; the payroll dates are available on the Payroll Calendar and Schedule. For PhD students with salaried assignments, the pay is divided into 9.5 paychecks per semester. The first pay of each semester is a half pay due to the start date being in the middle of a pay cycle (8/22/25 and 1/9/26). If a student has a 9-month appointment, there will be a break in pay between semesters.
Leave reports
Graduate assistants on salaried appointments must submit monthly leave reports by the last day of each month of work. (Please note that students in hourly positions do not submit leave reports.) Instructions for submitting leave reports are here. If an employee misses a scheduled shift, that counts as a day of leave.
Labor Management Committee
The Labor Management Committee (LMC) is 10-member committee comprising 5 members of the Clark staff/faculty and 5 members of the Union regularly throughout the year.
Clark Members: John LaBrie, Julie Bolduc, Kelly Boulay, Samantha Weaver (alternate: Savannah Plante). If there are any issues or questions that should be addressed by the LMC, please email Julie Bolduc, jbolduc@clarku.edu.
