Students deserve to know who's teaching
Tweet
As we matriculate through the halls of MSU, it is almost assured that we will sit in a class taught by a teaching assistant, or TA.
There is no doubt in our minds that TAs are invaluable resources. They free up time for professors to plan classes and pursue additional professional development opportunities.
Their presence also can allow for additional class sections and smaller class sizes.
We’re happy TAs are used in primary and complementary roles, but we would appreciate it if the university made those roles clear to students beforehand.
Nothing big, just a list — online preferably — so students can find out who is teaching each section.
According to Senior Associate Provost June Youatt, “… We don’t have that information centrally and there is no reason for us to have it because every individual (TA) assignment is determined at the department level.”
It does make sense to keep records at the departmental level because they approve TA assignments. But why not have the information centrally available? Why not have it all in one place instead of scattered across several departments?
To some, the lack of records might look like some sinister plot by the administration to keep students in the dark. We wager the reason has more to do with laziness , or simple short-sightedness, than anything else.
“Do you think TAs want to report everything they do in a classroom to some central database?” asked Karen Klomparens, dean of the graduate school. “Does someone centrally want to track this? For what purpose?”
Want is not the point. Oversight is not about want; it’s about the desire to provide a quality service to paying stakeholders, represented, in this case, by students.
We’re not bashing the use of TAs or even saying they’re underqualified; just as with professors, some are bad and some are good. It’s not difficult to find a student willing to rave about a class taught by a TA.
The purpose of a database everyone can see is to eliminate part of the guessing game. All it takes is a list of class sections, an instructor’s name and a designation for either TA or professor.
For comparison’s sake, consider the Web site ratemyprofessors.com. The whole point is to inform students about potential professors. It can help students pick instructors who fit with the college experience they want or it can help find those, in most cases, a person would like to avoid.
We pay money to be taught by the most qualified individual the university has to offer; it’s only reasonable we should have a chance to choose between a professor and a TA.
It’s true: Not all students care whether their class section is taught by a TA. But some do.
Care or not, we all pay. We pay for the right to know who is charge of our class. We pay for accessibility and transparency.
MSU should take a little time to give us our money’s worth.
Commentary
Add your $0.02, go to the comment form or follow the comment feed
student
(10/06/09 8:04pm)Report
This request is useless because the departments themselves are the ones that make decisions regarding what TA’s to use, how many or to not use them at all.
Also, if the class is being taught by a professor his/her name will appear when you go to enroll for it. If it doesn’t specify the name when you go to enroll it is very probable that its going to be taught by a TA.
To keep information about TA’s is useless because, aside from my previous arguments, they are after all students that will eventually graduate. So, in the short run and in the long run having that information doesn’t help.
As I said before the use of TA’s is determined by the departments themselves and how to use them too. There can even be a TA one year and the next year that TA doesn’t teach and spends time doing research or other things.
Regarding being able to choose a class with a TA or a professor, that argument is completely inaccurate since TA’s are used for classes that are in high demand and require many instructors. Example of these classes are many of the general requirements, college requirements, etc. The point is that they are classes that students have to take for a certain major and cannot be satisfied with another elective. Still, in many of these classes the TA just assists the professor in entering grades on to ANGEL and things like that.
Students will never encounter a TA in a class that is not a university requirement. For example, classes in the 300-400 level in most disciplines are taught by professors. There might be exceptions but it depends on research faculty.
Finally, I want to reiterate that when you enroll in a course you can see the name of the professor. The probability that a class it is taught by a TA if the name doesn’t appear on the enrollment page are high.
I swear...
(10/06/09 9:28pm)Report
…these opinion articles keep getting dumber and dumber.
J
(10/06/09 10:38pm)Report
The idiocy of opinions are commensurate with the opinionated individuals. The human race is getting more idiotic, thus those involved in the universe of discourse provide dumber and dumber visions of the world around us.
wtf
(10/07/09 4:29am)Report
“As we matriculate through the halls of MSU, it is almost assured that we will sit in a class taught by a teaching assistant, or TA.”
Except that I know many people in the sciences who have never had a class taught by a TA. TAs would generally only lead recitations and labs that are attached to courses.
Maybe students should friggin’ grow a pair. If you want to find out if a professor or TA will teach a course, email the listed professor and ask. What, are they going to lie to you? Why the hell would they care enough to deceive you into taking their class?
OldTimer
(10/07/09 4:50am)Report
Wrong word in the first clause: matriculate. You matriculate once, just like you graduate once. You don’t “matriculate through the halls,” except in the same sense that you are indeed born anew each day.
Ben
(10/07/09 9:27am)Report
YES YES YES!!! THIS IS WHAT I HAVE BEEN ASKING MY ADVISORS TO DO FOR YEARS!!!!!!
Wow
(10/07/09 10:35am)Report
Hey
i pay to have the most qualified person teach me. what do i get, someone who stayed at a holiday inn last night
Zeke
(10/07/09 10:57am)Report
“i pay to have the most qualified person teach me.”
No, you don’t. You pay for the education, not for the most qualified person. If you think that all MSU professors are the most qualified to teach their courses, you obviously have not been out of the state. MSU offers a great education and that’s what you’re paying for, regardless of who delivers it. If you think that a TA is not delivering that education, then you have a gripe and should address it.
“If you want to find out if a professor or TA will teach a course, email the listed professor and ask.”
This.
a former TA
(10/07/09 12:36pm)Report
As a former TA of various science classes (both as a grad student and as an undergrad), the sections (mainly of labs) often weren’t assigned until a week or two before the classes started. As these were all lab classes or recitations, you could go in knowing (at least if you had any experience at all) that they would be led by a TA, but, if you wanted to know which TA, that wasn’t assigned until much too late for you to decide your schedule.
As previous poster noted, in my time at MSU as an undergrad in the sciences, the only classes other than labs or recitations that I took that were led by TA’s rather than profs were liberal arts electives. If you’re that concerned about only being taught by professors, come join the dark side and become a science major. I do have to warn you though, the majority of our professors were hired based on their ability to bring in grants to the university with little to no consideration given to their teaching ability, so you might be find yourself sorely disappointed if you came in thinking that having only professors would provide you something your TAs couldn’t. Just a thought.
TAs rock
(10/08/09 1:05pm)Report
In may cases, TA’s are more qualified to teach and offer more innovative, exciting classroom experiences, compared to a 90-year-old fully tenured professor who could give a damn about the quality of his teaching. He has a job for life, so no need for the kinds of cutting-edge teaching and research undergrads expect of their professors. TA’s are usually hungry for the classroom. Professors at research 1 schools usually despise the classroom, which they consider the dirty laundry that comes with doing their preferred research.
Andrew Cooper
(10/08/09 7:37pm)Report
Once again, just email or call the department which offers the class. It’s really not that hard.
MSUAlum2001
(10/09/09 8:39am)Report
a former TA, that’s how it worked for me as well. When I was a TA in grad school, I didn’t find out, which section I had until a week before classes. And I’m not sure about MSU but at Colorado, all the TAs for the course (freshman Chem) got together and we got to pick our own section that was most convenient for us.
I swear this is the whiniest bunch of editors at the SNews that I’ve ever seen.
Sierra
(10/09/09 7:43pm)Report
Some TA’s are good and some should not be babysitting let alone teaching. I have taught IT classes for more than 10 years and evaluations from my students were very important to me to maintain the quality of the courses I taught. Our ratings were posted with the class schedule so students knew what type of instructor they were getting.
I would like to see TA’s and Professors similarly rated. I am paying a lot of money for these classes and I should be able to know who is rated highly and who is not. This is not whinning, it is how business in the real world is run.
Can I have a refund?
(10/10/09 12:10am)Report
I’ve had some great TAs in the years I’ve been at State, but I’ve had some not so great ones too. Personally, I believe I do pay to have my classes taught by the most qualified individual and that isn’t a grad student, if colleges and departments would like to have TAs teaching, not just assisting, then I’d like a rebate on my tuition. I’d like the option when I’m signing up for classes to reduce my costs by taking the “fluff” courses with a TA. What I don’t appreciate is signing up for a course with the intent of taking it with the prof listed because I know them to be competent and well respected, only to show up on the first day of class and find a TA for the semester. TAs are an invaluable and necessary resource on a campus the size of MSU, but if the university would like to continue its place among world class insitutuions they ought to consider holding their faculty to the standard that they are employed first and foremost as educators