Emergency Deferral of ELP Certification
International graduate students with an English Language Proficiency (ELP) status of Level 3 Verified only are ineligible for hire in a Graduate Assistant-Teaching (GAT), Graduate Assistant-Lecturer (GAL), etc. position. Under special circumstances, academic units may need to hire an international graduate student who has not attained ELP Level 1 Certification or Level 2 Conditional Eligibility based on standardized test scores, the English Language Proficiency Exam (ELPE), or Alternative Certification.
In such cases a college/school, department, or interdisciplinary degree program may request a one-time, one-semester only Emergency Deferral of the ELP Requirement for employment. Emergency Deferral may be acquired from the Graduate and Professional School via request submitted by colleges/schools, departments, or interdisciplinary degree programs. Emergency Deferral indicates that an international graduate student does not currently meet the ELP Requirement to hold a teaching position, but extenuating circumstances necessitated the hire. Academic units seeking to hire an ineligible international student based upon an Emergency Deferral must obtain approval of the request before the date of hire.
Justifiable Conditions for Deferral
The academic unit may request Emergency Deferral of the ELP Certification requirement if
- a previously assigned GAT or GAL is no longer able to teach the assigned course; or
- an unanticipated student enrollment increase requires the creation of additional course sections and no other eligible students are available; or
- other unexpected circumstances requires the hire of a Level 3 Ineligible international graduate student.
Assigned Faculty Supervision
If the Emergency Deferral is approved, the student will be granted Conditional Eligibility (similar to Level 2) for one semester only. During the semester of Emergency Deferral, the academic unit must assign a faculty member to conduct periodic reviews – including in-class observations – of the student’s teaching performance with the first review conducted during the first month of the semester. The Emergency Deferral Request Form must be signed by the supervising faculty member. The academic unit should take appropriate actions if the student’s performance is deemed unacceptable.
CTE-ELP Requirement
During the semester of emergency deferral, the student must participate in the English Language Proficiency (ELP) Program with the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE). In order to receive approval of the Emergency Deferral, the student must schedule an intake assessment with CTE before submission of the request form. Students must contact CTE at CTE-ELP@tamu.edu or 979-459-3966 before they can register online for the intake assessment. The Emergency Referral Request Form must indicate the scheduled assessment date and a copy of the confirmation must be included.
Expiration of Emergency Deferral
The international graduate student must achieve Level 1 Certification by the end of the semester of employment. If the student does not attain Level 1 Certification before the hiring date for the next semester, the employing unit will have the opportunity to move the employee to a Graduate Assistant Non-Teaching (GANT), Graduate Assistant Researcher (GAR), or another non-teaching role. For those students who do not meet the ELP requirement and are not transferred to a non-teaching position, the Graduate and Professional School will recommend termination to be processed by the Division of Human Resources and Organizational Effectiveness (HROE). The student will be ineligible for rehire until Level 1 Certification has been achieved.
Academic units may use the form linked below to request Emergency Deferral of ELP Certification for international graduate students.