Dear College of Science Department Heads,

We at the Associate Graduate Council for the College of Science (AGCCS) have spent the past several months surveying graduate students and compiling information about TA practices and training in the College of Science. As TAships are one of the few common graduate experiences across the diverse departments of the CoS, and also one of the least consistent, we feel that this is an area where a concerted effort on the part of the CoS and its individual departments to foster improvement would do much to improve the quality of graduate life across the college. We summarize the issues identified in our CoS-wide graduate student survey (the results of which are summarized in the attached document), as well as the specific recommendations that we’ve compiled from student comments and already existing exemplary practices in the departments of Chemistry, Mathematics and Psychology below.

The concerns with the current TAship system identifiedby our survey can be summarized as follows:

  1. The expectations for TAships within the same department vary widely and are not well laid out, leading to a large discrepancy in the workload performed by various students, despite identical salaries.
  2. The vast majority of CoSTAships revolve around duties such as grading and supervising lectures/labs. Although this is undoubtedly an important service for faculty and will likely always play a role in TAships, the inclusion of teaching duties among TA responsibilities has the potential to drastically increase the developmental value of the experience.
  3. Most CoSTAships may be best described as a “sink or swim” model. According to our data, the vast majority of CoS TAs get no training beyond TATO/GATO[1]. This can overwhelm the TA and lead to bad practices.
  4. Many TAs feel that theirTAing and research or coursework duties conflict. TA duties are perceived as supplemental to regular graduate duties, undervalued by departments and as secondary to the completion of a CoS degree.

To address these concerns, we recommend the following practices, some of which are already in place in the departments of Chemistry, Mathematics and Psychology.

  1. Contracts

Have graduate students and supervising facultydraft a contract before the semester begins. These contracts should detail the expected time commitment and duties of the position, should be negotiated based on the needs and desires of both parties, and should be approved and kept on file by the department for arbitration when necessary. This should engender a mutual understanding of the expected time commitment and duties, and will provide much-needed structure to the TAship without requiring that TA duties be standardized. It will also give TAs a venue to request the specific experiences that they feel would be the most beneficial in their professional development.

  1. Improved Training

All departments should offer TA training at the department level, and should not rely on TATO/GATO as the sole source of TA training. TATO/GATO is intended to inform TAs of general university regulations related to disability compliance, sexual harassment, plagiarism etc. and is not intended to be the sole source of classroom training.Examples of good training practicesalready in place in CoS departments include: pre-semester training seminars, weekly TA meetings, TA shadowing, faculty mentoring and discipline-specific college teaching classes.

  1. Teaching Opportunities

Faculty should work closely with their TAs to encourage and prepare them to teach a discussion or lecture section several times throughout the semester. This has the potential to provide invaluable experience in teaching and science communication. Currently, lecturing is most often performed by TAs in the CoS only when faculty need a substitute, but would be much more beneficial as a professional development experience if faculty were present to provide feedback. Faculty should be open with their classes about the necessity of teaching training for their graduate TAs.

In summary, TAing should be a valued, organized, and beneficial professional experience. Faculty who elect to have graduate TAs should see them as a junior colleague to be trained. Graduate TAships in the CoS can and should be a beneficial professional development experience, as teaching and communication skills are invaluable in both academia and in industry. We hope that you will use this information to improve TA practices within your own departments. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or if we can be of any help in this endeavor. We can provide you with documentation of already existing exemplary practices in the CoS, and will work to make this information available on our website in the near future.

Sincerely,

The 2012-13 Associate Graduate Council for the College of Science

President

Kate Follette (Astronomy)

Treasurer

Mason Quick (Atmo.)

Astronomy

Michelle Wilson

Greg Walth

Atmospheric Sciences

Mike Stovern

Chemistry

Gordon Meyer

Javier Castillo-Montoya

Stephanie Tolbert

Computer Science

Dan DeBlasio

Vice President

Henry Timmers (Physics)

Outreach Coordinator

Kendra Murray (Geoscience)

Ecology and Evolutionary Biology

Andy Gloss

Erik Hanschen

Geoscience

Devon Orme

Hydrology

Bobby Chrisman

Tree Ring

Laura Marshall

Chris Guiterman

Mathematics

Megan McCormick

Secretary

Natalie Dailey (SLHS)

Webmaster

Andy Predoehl (CS)

Molecular and Cellular Biology

Danielle Buck

Tracey Beyer

Cristina Howard

Physics

AdarshPyarelal

Psychology

Brooke Reid

Planetary Sciences

Donna Viola

Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences

Andrew DeMarco

[1]TATO/GATO is the mandatory 3 hour in person training + online module that all University TAs must complete before beginning their TAship