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Show Teaching assistants' situation improved 7 - I Office space for Department of Languages TA's, called "bull-pens" such as this large undivided room is located in OSH 106. There are tWo TA's to a desk. oto "y Lnuq 5? ? are" t because the job last spring when 'M students couldn't fi came back tofe,,1 He also expects TAs'n to d1Scontinue exnanIN because of lack Status is another grin 'lU I have, being considered L ?! students, but havin g bilty of a professor8 Faculty status I Mr. Cressman stated th--1 number of classes I should make them j faculty status, with I tions. He felt that TA's fc lack of participation ite I on the departmental, cofc University level. On tfej'. l mental level TA's are ' I suited on classes they teaci -: I the books to be used fa J classes. The same thin- I on the college level, "wil l TA's on Faculty Council fe I extent of involvement on ' versity level. I ' Mr. Winokur said that tlj I f the Department of Bioloji I committee of faculty mer I c choose TA assignments, k I j thought that as much infoirs: I w as possible should be nil je before assigning a person u. I U In the past Mr. Winokur said : I th not enough data wastsfj m, when giving some TA's class I A problem that Mr. It vi( pointed out was that sorae : I ne, don't know what they're te;; abi until a few days before the; Re ter begins. This leaves nofc I doi preparation and the it: I unl suffer. I j Between 1966 and tail I Fel Continued on page 5 I w BY JEFF SMITH Chronicle Staff Neither fish nor foul, is a tern frequently used when discussion: an concerning those people be tween a professor and a student: the teaching assistant. Teaching around 30 percent ol all undergraduate classes, discussions dis-cussions or labs the over 50C teaching assistants, commonly referred re-ferred to as TA's perform a vital function to the University. Yet, until a few years ago their position was virtually unknown and apalling. No office space for many, very low pay, no definition of what a TA was, and little concern by the individual departments depart-ments about their "junior faculty." Today, over three years after an extensive study concerning con-cerning TA's was concluded, many improvements have been made, but the situation is far from desirable. How good teaching assistant positions are depends primarily on the departments that they teach in. The department determines subject matter, size and type of classes, pay scales, office space and the amount of communication communi-cation between full faculty members and TA's. In some departments TA's teach only labs or quizzes while in others, primarily the social sciences, they have full responsibility responsi-bility for classes ranging from a few students to over a hundred pupils. TA Employment TA's can be employed for a full school year or on a quarter basis. A minimum of $2000 pay for a full academic year was established University wide in 1967. But pay ranges considerably higher for the wealthier departments, mainly the technical sciences. Office space also varies greatly, with some department TA's having hav-ing private space, while other departments de-partments house TA's in large undivided rooms called "bull pens" in which two people are assigned to each desk. The situation situa-tion has improved some since 1967 when several departments had no office space for TA's or the "bull pens" had three or four TA's to a desk. Today, all departments depart-ments give their TA's some office space. Benefits TA's have been given in the last three years include; A In March, 1969 the University conducted a week long work-shop to help TA's become better teachers. Two workshops were held in Sept. 1969, and one this past September for all first year TA's. The workshops consisted of talks by administrators and professors pro-fessors on aspects of teaching, and micro-teaching sessions where TA's in groups of around 12 would each teach their group and then be evaluated by the group. By using two cameras, one on the teacher, the other on the students and then showing the films on a split screen proved very effective in the micro units. Having the TA's judge parts of the program as well as the entire workshop, the least effective parts were eliminated between the first fall workshop and the one held in September. Biology TA Bob Winokur, who participated in the 1969 spring . workshop and then helped in the micro-teaching units the following two years, thought that the work shops were good, because tlieir mere existence is saying that teaching is important. Not Doing Job Mr. Monson said that the program pro-gram isn't working as well as it should, mainly because individual departments aren't doing their job; "But there isn't any place I know of that is trying to impli-ment impli-ment tire workshop idea University-wide," he said. The University is below the regional and national averages for comparable educational institutions institu-tions in the pay that tire TAs receive, commented Russell Cress-man, Cress-man, president of the Association of Teaching Fellows. Although salaries have risen in the last five years, pay is a source of dissatisfaction dis-satisfaction for many TA's. Many departments since the 1967 minimum was set have raised pay a little. Mr. Cressman said he received $2100 for the academic year. Mr. Winokur got $1950 when he came to the University Uni-versity in 1967, and he now parking stickers, library privileges and bookstore discounts. If a TA teaches five credit hours he is entitled to a full resident tuition waiver. A TA Who teaches two credit hours or is a lab section leader is granted a 25 percent reduction in resident tuition. All TA's have a nonresident non-resident tuition waiver. Tuition Benefits Mike Reed, Department of Economics' TA, said he would like to see the tuition benefits be as broad as possible to include more people. In many universities TA's pay no tuition regardless of how many hours they teach. This would include in-clude many counselors and lab technitions who do a large amount of work but don't teach quite enough hours to qualify for tuition benefits. Another problem TA's find is that teaching and taking classes or working on their thesis makes them choose between being better teachers or getting higher grades. Some feel more obligation towards to-wards the students so their grades suffer and they must remain as TA's longer. The Teaching Assistant Advisory Ad-visory Committee, a group which assists TA's at the University, proposed pro-posed that a TA who has taught three quarters should get a fourth quarter tuition free and just be a student. Renew Proposal According to Charles Monson, associate academic vice president, this would enable TA's to get their degrees faster and he expects the proposal, which was defeated last year, .to be renewed this year. ...but- a lot- to be desired faculty doesn't see fit to treat us as junior faculty members, it might become necessary to organize organ-ize outside the University." Cre'ssman said was a barrier between be-tween the administration and the TA's. Mr. Cressman put it: "If the 4 , ? - V . ' . ft ,v . , 7t L - x - - j.'" . ' m dA mm i at continued from page 4 three groups issued reports on the XA program. A committee of administrators, ad-ministrators, professors and TA's summed up the implications of three reports and proposed tneans for implimenting suggested changes- The committee issued a 24-page report that offered 38 recommendations designed to im-orove im-orove the effectiveness of the TA rogram on Sept. 1, 1967. The report ranged from suggestion concerning admissions procedures, payroll authorizations, the size of Lend, the use of office space and wnat each department's responsibility responsi-bility was in providing the necessary neces-sary facilities and supervision to help TA's achieve maximum teaching effectiveness. The report was accepted and became the official University statement on TA's. Mass walkout What prompted awareness by both TA's and universities across the country to the problems concerning con-cerning the TA program, was the mass walkout of TA's at Berkeley in 1965. Last spring, glaring deficiencies came out in the regulations concerning con-cerning TA's. At the first general faculty meeting held last spring it was discovered that TA's couldn't come to the meeting. But as Mr. Monson said, when all the reports were done in 1966 this point was left out. In his 12 years at the University Mr. Monson said that there has been one general faculty meeting before last spring. According to the TA's interviewed, inter-viewed, the administration has neglected, and not even thought about TA's at the University. Mr. Reed said that the administration doesn't even try to explain things until something happens. The Association of Teaching Fellows two main goals presently are (I) Getting members recognized recog-nized as faculty but with some exceptions, and (2) a good group health insurance program with Blue Cross and Blue Shield, because of .the 200 members in the association now it is too small, but if TA's were recognized as faculty then they could get the program. Concerning the Victor Gordon case, Mr. Cressman said that TA's feel threatened by what the administration ad-ministration is doing. This example pointed up what Mr. Russell Cressman, president of the Association of Teaching Fellows, teaches a small begining French class. Some TA's have responsibility responsi-bility for upwards of one hundred students. Photo by Steve Ford |
