A core foundation of education through the R. Wayne Estopinal College of Architecture and Planning is experiential and immersive learning, and your partnership provides an invaluable educational experience while helping students further their educational aspirations. Community-university partnerships like this can be very rewarding and essential as we all work to build a better Indiana.
Benefits
The primary benefit to employers of the CAP:IC graduate assistantship program is the ability to affordably employ a design or planning professional who has already completed his/her undergraduate degree. An assistant can work either at the employer's location or at CAP:IC, allowing employers who lack space or resources such as computer equipment the ability to employ an assistant.
Employers also enjoy the rewards of mentoring and guiding a student preparing for a professional career.
About the Students
Graduate assistants will have already completed their bachelor's degree and be versed in design and planning theory, research techniques, communication and graphic development, and have experience with quantitative methods and many computer applications. Assistants will also have completed an internship as required by their undergraduate degree and many will have been involved in various community outreach and service projects as an undergraduate student.
As a sponsor, you will be able to interview from a pool of interested candidates and select the assistant you wish to sponsor.
Schedule
Assistantships follow a semester schedule, and it is up to you to select how many semesters you wish to sponsor an assistant. Most sponsorships are for a three-semester (fall, spring, summer) schedule.
As currently structured, the master of urban design (MUD) program accepts students into a fall entry schedule. While a assistantship sponsorship would ideally also begin in the fall semester, sponsorships starting in other semesters are accommodated. Typically your sponsorship would stay with a student as he or she progresses through the MUD program, but depending on your needs and the academic timing, you may have a change in the student you sponsor. For example, if you sponsor an assistant starting with the spring semester for three semesters, your initial graduate assistant may graduate in the summer and you would sponsor a new assistant for that fall semester.
Graduate assistants will work 20 hours per week except during official university breaks. Because the assistant are students first, we ask that you be flexible and accommodate any required field trip or other professional development activities they may attend. In these cases, the student should work with you to rearrange the schedule or make up time. Assistants typically are available to work Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, although individual availability may vary.
Costs
By sponsoring a graduate assistant, you enter into a contract with Ball State. You provide the funding, and in return, Ball State provides you with a student for 20 hours per week and handles all payroll operations, tax, and People and Culture Services. The amount of the stipend is set by you for an amount that translates into $10 to $15 per hour. There is also a variable indirect cost rate to cover the university’s costs. Nonprofit or governmental entities may also provide tuition support for the student at their discretion, but it is university policy to have for-profit entities provide the full tuition amount.
More Information
Sponsors interested in participating in the assistant program are encouraged to contact CAP:IC.