Chapter 5
Teaching Assistants and Faculty

A teaching assistant is an apprentice. You work for the course instructor, but also assist with teaching the class. This can be a rewarding experience. You can expect guidance from your supervising faculty member, will get hands-on experience working with students, and collectively–you, the course instructor, and the students–will work toward a better understanding of the discipline you are studying. It is your responsibility to make the most of this opportunity. Ask questions, talk about teaching, make suggestions.

A teaching assistant is an especially important part of a large lecture class. You will get to know your students, their names and their problems. You will play a role in helping them to make sense of lectures and prepare for exams. But if your relationship with your students is to be productive, your relationship with the course instructor must also be productive. You need to be working together in complementary roles with the same goal: to educate your students. Maintaining this cooperative relationship with your faculty supervisor is paramount to a good teaching experience.

NEGOTIATING RESPONSIBILITIES

The teaching assistant-faculty relationship can require a delicate balance of diplomacy and compromise because the teaching assistant’s responsibility (and authority) may be ambiguous. As soon as possible, talk to your faculty supervisor about his or her expectations for the class and your responsibilities. Typically these responsibilities will vary from professor to professor and from department to department. Even if you are an experienced teaching assistant, here are some questions you may want to discuss with your faculty supervisor early in the semester. [1] Most often your supervising faculty member will be expecting you to come to him/her with these questions and will welcome the opportunity to talk to you about the class. Yet in negotiating your responsibilities as a teaching assistant, you should demonstrate subtle judgment. Marching into a professor’s office and making demands is certainly not advisable even if you do have the right to know what will be expected of you during the semester. Your experience as a TA may go more smoothly if you learn to practice the fine art of negotiation in establishing a working relationship with your supervising faculty member.

PROBLEMATIC RELATIONSHIPS

Misunderstandings may occur between teaching assistants and professors if both take the other for granted and expect one to guess the requirements and expectations of the other. One professor might want you to organize course materials on the web and present your own lectures, and yet another may only occasionally meet with you during the semester. Professors who have worked with many teaching assistants sometimes assume that every TA knows their wishes, but a teaching assistant who is working with a professor for the first time may need to be told what is expected. Experience suggests that it helps to ask specific questions: "Shall I stop by before class tomorrow? Are there any handouts? Should we meet before I begin grading papers?"

If you feel you have been given too much work or if there are problems of any other kind, it usually helps to talk to the professor. Let the professor know that you respect him or her and that you understand his or her point of view. Clearly state your concerns, and be prepared to negotiate a little. Often that will be enough.

Should your relationship with a supervising faculty member become so troubled that you feel unable to talk to him or her directly, you must make a decision as to whether or not to bring the issue to the attention of your department chairperson. Before doing so, you should review the University of Pittsburgh's Academic Integrity Guidelines (including "Faculty Obligations to Students") and the Policy Statement for Teaching Assistants, Teaching Fellows, and Graduate Student Assistants to see if a violation of University policy has occurred. In addition, you may want to consult your academic advisor or speak with an experienced graduate student to get a "second opinion." Duties or assignments that may seem unfair or too difficult at first glance may be part of the standard role for teaching assistants in your department. In any event, you should remember that these are serious steps and that the decision to raise concerns about a faculty member’s teaching, supervision or advising should be considered carefully. Hastily made charges could damage not only the faculty member’s career but also your own. [2]
 

POLICIES AND PROCEDURES 
FOR GRADUATE INSTRUCTORS
Policies, Procedures and Handbooks at the University http://www.pitt.edu/HOME/PP/pp_handbooks.html
TA/TF/GSA Policy
http://www.pitt.edu/~provost/tapolicy.html
Academic Integrity (Faculty)
http://www.pitt.edu/HOME/PP/policies/02/02-03-02.html
         Academic Integrity (Students)
http://www.pitt.edu/HOME/PP/policies/02/02-03-03.html

FACULTY-STUDENT RELATIONSHIPS

In an academic environment, close working relationships between faculty and students are commonplace. If this professional association becomes more intimate, there is the potential for a conflict of interest. A personal relationship (e.g., familial or romantic) could be perceived as influencing a professional relationship (e.g., grading, advising, hiring, etc.). To address this issue, the University of Pittsburgh implemented a policy regarding student-faculty relationships in 1996.

The policy is as follows:

The University's educational mission is promoted by professional relationships between faculty members and students. Relationships of an intimate nature compromise the integrity of a faculty-student relationship whenever the faculty member has a professional responsibility for the student.

The University prohibits intimate relationships between a faculty member and a student whose academic work, teaching, or research is being supervised or evaluated by the faculty member. If an intimate relationship should exist or develop between a faculty member and a student, the University requires the faculty member to remove himself/herself from all supervisory, evaluative, and/or formal advisory roles with respect to the student. Failure to do so may subject the faculty member to disciplinary action.

Transgressions of this policy may result in the forfeiture of the legal and monetary protections of the University's indemnification policy. (See Policy 07-06-06, Faculty and Staff Indemnification.)

 As a Teaching Assistant you will be expected to comply with the above University Policy regarding prohibition of intimate relationships between yourself and either a professor or a student. For a full statement of the policy (including a list of definitions), see the University's Policies, Procedures and Handbook web site especially Policy 02-04-03, Faculty-Student Relationships.

SEXUAL HARASSMENT

Sexual harassment most often (but not always) takes place where there is a power differential between the persons involved as, for example, in the relationship between faculty and teaching assistant, or teaching assistant and student. The University of Pittsburgh is committed to maintaining a community free of sexual harassment and considers sexual harassment a violation of University policy (as well as federal, state and local law).

University of Pittsburgh Policy 07-06-04 defines sexual harassment as "any unwelcome advance, request for sexual favors, or other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when:"

  1. Submission to such conduct is an explicit or implicit condition of employment or academic success,
  2. Submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the basis for an employment or academic decision,
  3. Such conduct has the purpose or effect of (a) unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work or academic performance, or (b) creating an intimidating, hostile or offensive work or academic environment.
Sexual harassment can take place between members of the same gender as well as members of different genders. It is a violation of University policy whether it happens on campus or at a University sponsored off-campus event.

Any teaching assistant who believes he or she has been sexually harassed should contact a department chair, dean, or the Office of Affirmative Action. If a teaching assistant requires counseling or advice, he/she should contact Sexual Assault Services. The University of Pittsburgh protects the victims of sexual harassment by prohibiting employers from retaliating against a person who makes a claim of sexual harassment.
 

SEXUAL HARASSMENT POLICIES AND SERVICES 
AT THE UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH

University of Pittsburgh Sexual Harassment Policy
http://www.pitt.edu/HOME/PP/policies/07/07-06-04.html

University of Pittsburgh Faculty-Student Relationship Policy
http://www.pitt.edu/HOME/PP/policies/02/02-04-03.html

Sexual Assault Services at the University of Pittsburgh
http://www.pitt.edu/~saserv/

 
Chapter 4 .. Chapter 6
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