They were similarly expected to work up to 20 hours a week. NYU s financial aid and not pay argument was similarly rejected by the unanimous Board. Graduate student assistants receive no academic credit for their work and, in many cases, have completed all of their course work and are only working on their Ph.D dissertations while they teach. Also, they can be fired by NYU in the sense that their teaching assignments can be revoked if they are poor teachers even though they would still continue as graduate students. Only 1,700 of NYU s 17,500 graduate students serve as teaching assistants.
Many graduate students function like part-time faculty.
The Board determined they perform work under NYU s control in return for payment, which is the classic definition of an employee. Even granting NYU s point that the students receive financial aid and are neither paid nor compensated, the Board determined their teaching duties are in exchange for consideration. While the disabled workers excluded from the Act s coverage in that case received pay, the basic relationship was primarily rehabilitative and not guided to a great extent by business considerations. NYU s final argument was that the graduate assistants were teaching in furtherance of their degrees. The house staff in Boston Medical had already obtained their degrees.