Direct Academic Benefit

Every academic year (or every semester in some cases), we receive appointment letters outlining the type of work we have been assigned for the upcoming year (or semester). At some point during our graduate careers at Temple, many of us will work as a Research Assistant in one form or another. You could be assigned work as an RA in a number of ways – as a full RA at 20 hours per week, as both a TA and RA each for 10 hours per week, as a TA for the Fall and Spring semesters and an RA for the Summer, and more. If any part of your assignment involves work as a Research Assistant, you will find an additional form attached to your appointment letter labeled “Individual Declaration of Academic Benefit”, also known as Direct Academic Benefit (DAB). 

Every situation is unique, so please email union@tugsa.org with any and all questions you may have related to DAB or working as Research Assistant at Temple. We have knowledgeable members on hand to help understand and make the best decision!

What is it?

If you are a Research Assistant (in full or in part), then attached to your appointment letter you will find an additional form to sign that is labeled “Individual Declaration of Academic Benefit.”

The technical definition of Direct Academic Benefit is as follows:

Direct academic benefit shall mean: (a) receipt of academic credit (i.e., semester hour credit grade, or satisfaction of a degree requirement); or (b) the use of research provided pursuant to the assistantship as a component of a master's thesis, master's project or doctoral dissertation, or otherwise for receipt of academic credit.

That’s pretty vague! And the language on the DAB form itself doesn’t help either. DAB is a confusing and complicated term, one that exists only at Temple, and is something that no single person at the university is completely familiar with (Even just compiling all the info on this page into one place was the work of many graduate employees like yourself!).

How does this affect me?

The decision on how to sign this form is one that everyone should consider carefully. The part of the form language that is most important to understand is as follows:

“I understand that any graduate assistant who receives a “direct academic benefit” for performing research services does not fall within the bargaining unit definition agreed to by the Temple University Graduate Students’ Association (TUGSA) and Temple University and, thus, is not a member of the bargaining unit.”

What this means: First, the above sentence is not entirely accurate or relevant for many RAs. For example, if you are working as both a TA and RA simultaneously (see below), you are in the TUGSA bargaining unit regardless of how you sign the DAB form. If you are assigned to work as a TA during the Fall/Spring semesters and an RA over the Summer, you are in the TUGSA bargaining unit for the entirety of your TA assignment, again regardless of how you sign the DAB form. When you’re employed solely as an RA, and you know your research will be used directly toward completing an academic requirement outlined in the Graduate Bulletin (course credit or your thesis/dissertation), you should declare that you DO INTEND to receive direct academic benefit. This means that if you are ever in a situation where you may face discipline or dismissal due to an issue with the work you’re performing on your appointment letter, then TUGSA would not be able to formally represent you at a meeting where that discipline/dismissal was discussed. However, you would still be entitled to our informal advisement, consultation, and support throughout the process. If you sign that you WILL NOT receive DAB, you are entitled to the full, formal representation of TUGSA in regard to your rights as an employee. 

What this doesn’t mean: Many graduate students (and even professors) mistake this to mean that receiving direct academic benefit means that they can’t affiliate with TUGSA in any way or that they’re not affected by the union and don’t need to pay attention to newsletters or other communications. They may also think that they’re not allowed to attend TUGSA events or speak with other TUGSA members. But this isn’t true! Regardless of how you sign the DAB form, you are encouraged to participate in TUGSA. Your pay, healthcare coverage, and working conditions as an RA are based on TUGSA’s collective bargaining agreement. So even if “technically” you are not represented by TUGSA in a given semester, the union’s success is still essential to your working life! 

How DAB applies to you depends on the specific details of your assignment. Below are the three most common work assignments in which graduate employees encounter DAB. 

TA in Fall/Spring, RA in the Summer

This is especially common among those in their first few years of graduate school at Temple. 

Often, graduate employees are given a TAship during the academic year and summer funding via an RAship during the summer. Importantly, in this situation DAB is only relevant during the summer when your RAship is active. Your summer RAship could possibly fall under DAB (the “DO INTEND” line) if it supports your progress towards your degree requirements in a direct way (e.g. you’ll be using the data collected in your dissertation).

What’s most important to remember is whenever you are working as a TA you are fully represented by TUGSA and entitled to all the benefits that come with it no matter what. This is true regardless of the status of any RAship you have or how you’ve signed the DAB form. Despite the confusing language on the form, it is simply irrelevant. This is both TUGSA and Temple’s understanding of this kind of situation.

You can Join TUGSA here!

RA and TA at the same time

Many graduate employees have split responsibilities between working as a TA and as an RA simultaneously. The most common example is someone who is assigned 10 hours of work per week as a TA and 10 hours per week as an RA, but other variations happen as well. 

While you should consider how you sign the form carefully, it will have no bearing on your relationship to TUGSA and your rights as a unionized employee. If half the work you’re doing is as a TA, you are represented by TUGSA regardless of how you sign the DAB form. If you sign that you will not receive DAB, then you’re represented by TUGSA regardless of what percentage of your appointment is dedicated toward work as a TA.

You can Join TUGSA here!

Full-time RA

Most often, this applies to graduate students in the later years of their program who are finishing/writing their dissertations. 

If you’re hired as only an RA and more than half of the work you are doing will result in data or information that will then be directly used in your dissertation or thesis, then you should sign that you DO INTEND to receive a direct academic benefit. If the research you’re doing for your work is NOT being used directly in your dissertation or thesis, or if half of the work you’re doing does not directly pertain to your own work as a grad student, or if you’re unsure whether the work you’re doing will be used in your thesis/dissertation, you should declare that you WILL NOT receive DAB (see the frequently asked questions section below for more details).

While you aren’t technically represented by TUGSA if you declare DAB and are working as a full RA, your pay, benefits, and working conditions are still determined by the TUGSA collective bargaining agreement and you are still welcome and free to participate! Your success depends on it!

You can Join TUGSA here!

  • The easiest way to understand how to sign the form is to is to break down the term “Direct Academic Benefit” into two pieces:

    “Direct” means that the data/information generated or analyzed as part of your Research Assistantship (and only during the specific year/semester to which your current appointment letter applies) is or will be used directly in your dissertation, thesis project, or the completion of course credit.

    This does NOT refer to things like: The broader knowledge and experience you’ve gained, the literature you’ve explored while fulfilling your work duties, or the skills, theories, arguments, or styles you’ve developed while working as an RA. Additionally, merely referencing the work completed as part of your RA does not count either.

    “Academic benefit” means that the research that you are doing as part of your RA assignment is done with the express and exclusive purpose of fulfilling a specific degree requirement as outlined in the Graduate Bulletin.

    This does NOT include things like publishing a paper in an academic journal or presenting at a conference (see below).

    Therefore, you should only claim that you DO INTEND to receive direct academic benefit if you are working as a Research Assistant and only collecting or analyzing data/info that is used directly in your dissertation or thesis at that time.

    You should claim that you WILL NOT receive direct academic benefit if your research will not be used directly in your dissertation or thesis or to complete a course requirement.

    If you’re unsure how to sign the form, read the following questions or contact us right away! Many TUGSA members have been through this process and would be happy to help you talk through it. If you’re worried you may have signed the form incorrectly, don’t worry! Reach out to us with questions and we can help.

    Email us at union@tugsa.org or fill out this short form and a representative will reach out.

  • You will receive a new DAB form to sign each time you receive an appointment letter. The appointment letter is like your work contract. It outlines your pay, benefits, job duties and expectations, etc. Our appointments (i.e. our TA and/or RA work assignments) typically last between one semester and a full calendar year.

    How you sign is applicable only for the timeframe stated in the first paragraph of each specific DAB form. Once that time period has ended, how you signed the form is no longer relevant. If you will continue working as an RA, you will be given a new DAB form alongside your new appointment letter. Your response on the form will vary based on the particular job duties you've been assigned and your research focus and goals in a given semester.

  • It can be very difficult to know for certain that work you're doing as part of your Research Assistantship will be directly used in your thesis or dissertation, and for incoming first-years or others in the early stages of our graduate careers, it's impossible to know for sure.

    Fortunately, the university has agreed that if we sign saying we will not receive DAB but later realize research we'd previously done actually is relevant to our theses/dissertations, we can switch to receiving a direct academic benefit later in order to use it in our work.

    If you have any concerns or questions about changes in your academic plan, contact union@tugsa.org and we can help.

    We’ve never heard of an RA needing to go through any formal process to change their DAB decision in order to use their research. Normally, RAs move on to defend their thesis/dissertation without any concerns or questions related to DAB and their specific work.

    We therefore encourage graduate RAs who are unsure if the work they are doing will be used in their thesis/dissertation to always sign saying they WILL NOT receive a direct academic benefit. You should only sign that you DO INTEND to receive DAB when you are certain that the results of your RA work will be directly used in your thesis/dissertation.

    If you're unsure, you should sign saying you WILL NOT receive a direct academic benefit. You can always sign the form differently in your next appointment letter (see "How often do I have to sign a DAB form?" above), or change how you've signed it later on.

    It's always better to have your union rights and protections than to go without them!

  • Graduate RAs often ask how they should sign the DAB form if they anticipate using the data and information that they develop as part of their work assignment in a publication, presentation, conference poster, etc. But the language on the form is clear: DAB only applies when the work that you are doing will be directly used toward the completion of your degree requirements as outlined in the Graduate Bulletin.

    Publications and conference papers arising from your RA assignment are of course important aspects of your graduate career and beyond. However, because they do not fulfill a specific requirement that must be met in order to receive your degree, they do not constitute a direct academic benefit. It’s more accurate to describe them as "professional" benefits, rather than academic benefits.

    Bottom line: ​​DAB does not apply if work you do as an RA results in academic or professional benefit from entities outside of Temple, such as a paper published in a scientific journal, or a conference presentation or poster. If it’s not technically something you are required (not merely encouraged) to do to receive your degree, it’s not DAB.

    If you’re still unsure, email union@tugsa.org with “DAB question” in the subject line and we can help talk you through it!

  • Faculty and staff tend to underestimate the significance of the decision, while overestimating the extent to which DAB applies to certain situations. This stems from the fact that the university’s Human Resources department provides no information or training about DAB to faculty, chairs, and department staff. This leads to uncertainty and confusion around the issue of DAB, how it works, and how the form should be signed. Often what they know is just as much as you knew before visiting this web page. If someone in your department told you to sign the form in a particular way and you’re not sure it’s correct, contact us right away and we can help clarify!

More questions about how this affects your TUGSA membership?

Still not sure how to sign? Worried that you signed the “wrong” way? 

Contact Us.

The information on this page is the most up to date info on the subject as of August 2024.