The distinction between Students as Students and Students as Employees is critical. In accordance with the CUPE3913 Collective Agreement, which is an Employment contract, these roles are separate, files are kept separately, and employment performance is separate from academic performance (and vice versa).  Also, take the important distinction between TAs and RAs:

Summary

GTA/UTA = A graduate or undergraduate student who is employed by the University as a Teaching Assistant.

GSA-1 = A graduate student employed in work related to the academic enterprise that is not a TA and is paid from University funding (e.g., a graduate student employed to run reports related to academic data, writing services in the Library).

NOTE: Only GTAs, UTAs and GSA-1s are CUPE 3913 Unit 1 members. 

GSA-2 = A graduate student employed in work that is not directly related to the academic enterprise (e.g., wait staff, athletics worker, line cook, etc.).

GRA-1 = A graduate student receiving monies (from an academic unit or a trust/grant) for contributions to the student’s research program (which may also contribute to the faculty member’s research).

GRA-2 (or GRA STU RA) = A graduate student employed (from an academic unit or a trust/grant) in work directly related to research (i.e., not their own thesis research) (e.g., research assistants hired in the summer to work in the research field).

More information on Graduate Research Assistants (GRA-1):

Per the Office of Graduate and Post-doctoral Studies, a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA-1) is described as follows:

“The student's research is a contribution to the research of the faculty member under whose direction it is conducted and it is understood that it will be used in, or be directly relevant to the student’s research program.”

Per the University’s Response to the OLRB (at time of application for certification of GRAs by CUPE 3913):

GRA-1s are:

1. Graduate Research Assistants (“GRAs”) are graduate students enrolled at the University in various graduate academic programmes who are in receipt of financial aid in the form of a Graduate Research Assistantship.
2. The Graduate Research Assistantship is not an employment contract rather, the Graduate Research Assistantship is a mechanism for funding the graduate student’s research activities in connection with his/her graduate studies.
3. The GRAs conduct their research in collaboration with a faculty member who is engaged in a research project funded by external sources, and the Graduate Student Assistantship is funded through these external sources. The product of the GRA’s research is the GRA’s thesis which is submitted as part of the University’s requirements to obtain a graduate or post-graduate degree.
4. Graduate students who receive a Graduate Research Assistantship do not perform an employment service for the University or its faculty members. GRA’ s have been in existence at the University for decades and have never been treated as employees.
5. By contrast, Graduate Teaching Assistants (“GTAs”) do provide an employment service to the University in that they are assigned specific tasks associated with the delivery of undergraduate degree courses at the University. GTAs have historically been treated as employees of the University.
6. There are graduate students who may at any one time be both a GTA and a GRA. This fact does not in any way affect the conclusion that GRA’s are not employees of the University.