Key Contact

If you have questions, please contact your Area Associate Dean. 

Applicability  

Graduate assistants.

Policy Purpose and Description  

CLAS’s budget for teaching assistants is not sufficient to meet all recruiting or instructional needs departments may identify. CLAS places high priority on support of lab and discussion sections in faculty-taught courses; staffing of instructional labs, computer facilities, or studios where use of equipment must be supervised; and staffing 1000 and 2000-level stand-alone courses in which enrollments of 25-35 have proven pedagogically ideal. CLAS also considers requests for teaching assistance for faculty-taught courses in which preparation, grading, and other instructional support is unusually time consuming. In awarding teaching assistantships, departments should keep in mind the college’s guidelines for uses of the TA allocation and the terms governing appointments found in the Graduate Assistant Employment Manual.

Departments may also consider whether undergraduate teaching interns can fulfill some of the functions listed above.

In the annual budget planning application, CLAS will allocate the departmental TA budget in the form of 1) an approved number of HTEs at the COGS-negotiated minimum salary, and 2) a maximum number of tuition, fee, and fringe packages that can be attached to those HTEs or proportions of them. The departments are responsible for any amounts paid over COGS-negotiated minimum salary and for any tuition, fee, and fringe packages above the maximum number assigned.  

Definitions  

COGS: Graduate Teaching and Research Assistants Collective Bargaining Unit

HTE: Half-time Equivalent

Procedure

Each fall departments are assigned a TA Allocation by the TA Allocation Committee led by the Associate Dean for Graduate Education. Allocations are made on the basis of the previous allocation, returns on that allocation, enrollment trends over the past three years, and any significant changes to the curriculum for which the department has argued the necessity of an increase in the allocation. Departments further may propose emergency revisions to the allocation at their annual budget meeting with members of the CLAS Leadership Team.  

Forms  

N/A

Frequently Asked Questions  

N/A

Related Information

Graduate Student Employment Standards

Range of Responsibilities Undertaken by Teaching Assistants

Monies allocated by the College for teaching assistant stipends are paid only to those graduate assistants involved in instruction. Their activities may include grading, leading discussion sections or laboratory sections, preparing instructional materials, or teaching courses. Graders should be assigned only to tenured or tenure-track faculty, to distinguished senior visitors with heavily enrolled courses, or to other visiting faculty who have teaching assignments at least 50% greater than those of tenure-track faculty.

Supervision of Teaching Assistants

The DEO must see that every teaching assistant is supervised by a faculty member. The course supervisor ensures that the course meets departmental and collegiate standards and that departmental and collegiate policies are adhered to. The course supervisor’s name must appear on the course syllabus.

Preparation of Teaching Assistants

The preparation of teaching assistants is an important part of the teaching responsibility of faculty. Every department maintains procedures for the preparation of new teaching assistants and for the further development of teaching skills in continuing TAs. The Center for Teaching supports the preparation of graduate students, through a Handbook for Teaching Assistants, workshops, and other programs.

Use of TAs as Primary Instructors

When assigning a TA to deliver the primary instruction in a course, the DEO must make certain that the assignment is appropriate. TAs should be primary instructors only in lower-division courses with small enrollments in which students are expected to do extensive writing or recitation. It is not appropriate to assign a TA to teach a lecture course or any course with an enrollment over 40 students.

It is also inappropriate to assign a TA to teach a course numbered at the 3000 level, because other graduate students may enroll in that course for credit. If the DEO believes that such an assignment must be made, he or she writes to the CLAS Associate Dean for Graduate Education before finalizing the assignment, giving the reasons why the assignment is necessary or desirable and the qualifications of the particular graduate assistant selected for the assignment. If the CLAS Associate Dean for Graduate Education approves the assignment, the DEO must appoint a faculty supervisor who will assign credit and grades to any graduate students enrolled in the course. On the final class lists submitted to the Registrar, the faculty supervisor initials the grades assigned to graduate students enrolled in the course.

Undergraduate Teaching Interns

Departments may not use funds allocated by the College for teaching assistant stipends to hire undergraduates as teaching interns. Teaching interns must be compensated with course credit. For more information, see Undergraduates as Instructional Aides on the CLAS website.

Revision History