College TAs sign teaching agreements

Sign on the dotted line, please. School of Arts and Sciences graduate teaching assistants and professors implemented a new contract system this semester to help define the role of TAs in the classroom. These contracts, which SAS departments agreed to use last November, will specify in detail what work teaching or research assistants for a particular professor will perform. The contracts will state important job information such as hours per week, stipend, title and any other subject-specific details. Before this semester, professors usually made verbal arrangements with each student assistant, which often led to miscommunication between teaching assistants and faculty members. "There was nothing explicitly written down," GAPSA Vice Chair for Policy Susan Garfinkel said. With the installation of the Graduate Student Compact, both faculty and students are forced to consider the task they are about to undertake. "It makes the faculty think about the supervisory aspect of having a teaching assistant. Also, the student can ask up front what they will need in terms of advice from the professor," Garfinkel said. In order to create a document which would appeal to both faculty and students, the Graduate Student Associations Council worked with former SAS Dean Hugo Sonnenschein for about a year. Because the Compact was a student initiative, GSAC first circulated the completed version to the graduate chairpersons for advice on how to gain faculty support. The completed Compact states that, "it is intended to explicate and clarify graduate student responsibilities to the University. It may facilitate, and should in no way substitute for, ongoing communication between students and faculty." The Compact has been distributed to department business administrators throughout the College. Although it is not mandatory that departments use the Compact, GSAC hopes the contract will become routine, and perhaps one day, required. "We consider it in the mutual interest of students and faculty," said GSAC Treasurer Michael Polgar. "It might even help with administrative details." Several departments still have not begun using the TA contracts, perhaps because it has only been in effect for three days. The English Department Graduate Division received the Compact in November, after their fellowships had already been decided. However, Administrative Assistant David Coleman said the department will probably begin using the agreements next fall. "We haven't been using it because it's stuff we already do," he added.

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