Graduate Fellow Transition to Payroll

To: All Current Graduate Fellows and Project Contacts:

Subject: Change in Graduate Fellow Payment Method effective July 1, 2024

Date: June 3, 2024

Graduate Fellows,

Over the past year the University has been planning to move graduate fellow payments from Payables to Payroll. Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies, Human Resources, the Controller’s Office, and Information Technology initially met with a focus group of graduate student leaders to capture the needs of the graduate student community to develop reports and processes that would be accurate, clear, and visible to both yourselves and the administrators that support you.

This change will mean that as of July 1, 2024:

  • All graduate students will have one payment source for all of their graduate student payments
  • All graduate students will be able to see all their graduate student payments and hourly work on their payslips
  • All graduate students will have one bi-weekly pay cycle for grad fellowship, grad assistantship (RA/TA/Instructor of Record), and hourly student work assignments
  • There will be one place in iO to maintain banking and address information
  • All graduate student students will continue to receive an email with a link to their personalized, consolidated Grad Student Pay Report each pay cycle
  • Prizes and awards will, however still be paid through payables

If you later transition to a graduate assistant assignment, your pay schedule will remain on the same, predictable, bi-weekly pay cycle.

This change does not mean that graduate fellow tax withholdings will change as a result of the move to payroll. Graduate students who are U.S. citizens, permanent residents, or resident aliens for U.S. tax purposes will not have tax withholding from their fellowship payments; however, they will no longer receive or have a 1099-MISC reported to the IRS beginning with the 2024 tax year. Resident aliens for U.S. tax purposes will have tax withholding (if no treaty benefit is available and claimed) and receive a 1042-S for their fellowship income and tax withholding, if applicable. Graduate students can refer to Tax Treatment of University Scholarships, Fellowships, and Grants for more information or refer to their payslips or Grad Student Pay Report to view their fellowship income.

What should you expect?

As part of the transition from Payables to Payroll, graduate fellow payments will move to a bi-weekly (26 payments per year) schedule rather than the current semi-monthly (24 payments per year) schedule. The amount of your annual pay will not change due to this system change, but the per pay period amount will be reduced and paid more frequently.

If, for example, if you currently earn $34,000 per twelve months through your graduate student payments you would can expect to be paid:

For June 1, 2023 - June 30, 2024 (still on a semi-monthly pay basis) through payables):
$34,000 / 24 pay periods per year =
$1,416.67 paid on June 15 and June 28

Then starting July 1, 2024, you can expect to be paid bi-weekly through payroll:
$34,000 / 26 pay periods per year =
$1,307.69 every other Friday

Following the bi-weekly Payroll schedule, you will now be paid:

$1,416.67 on June 28, 2024
$1,307.69 on July 19, 2024
$1,307.69 on August 2, 2024
$1,307.69 on August 16, 2024
$1,307.69 on August 30, 2024

On July 19, you can expect that all of your graduate student payments and hourly work payments since July 1 will be visible on the graduate student pay report here. Graduate fellow payments before July 1 will continue to be available on the Grad Student Pay Report.

If you are unclear what you can expect to be paid, please reach out to your HCMI or graduate administrator for assistance. In the event that you are not able to budget for this transition in the near term, please contact fina@rice.edu to request a low interest Adams Moseley Emergency Loan.

What do you need to do?

You will receive an email on or about June 19 to enter or confirm your banking and address information into iO to ensure seamless payments through the transition. This iO Journey will include a step-by-step guide to assist with this process. Please complete this as soon as possible after June 19 to ensure that your graduate student payments can continue to be delivered via direct deposit.

If you have questions or need additional assistance setting up your direct deposit please join your Student HCMs, HR, Payroll, and GPS during on Thursday June 27, from 2-3 p.m. on zoom.

If after the transition you would like to validate the pay that you received, please watch for additional office hours.

Zoom link for the office hours on June 27 are here: https://riceuniversity.zoom.us/j/95480053111?pwd=SU5NbytmWW9XRWQrN3BMRXFYODN0UT09

Additional resources are available: