Responsibilities Of Graduate Teaching Assistants

The Mathematics Department recognizes that your main concern is your education and progress toward a degree. It is also our main concern. The Graduate Committee will do everything possible to help you achieve your goal. Our programs of courses, seminars, colloquia, and individual work with faculty members reflect our commitment to that end. By awarding you a Graduate Assistantship we have indicated that we believe you have a reasonable chance of reaching your goal. But you must recognize that a Graduate Assistantship is a job with duties and responsibilities.

Having earned a Bachelor's degree yourself, you should appreciate the importance of a good instructional system. To maintain the integrity of our courses, the Department must require you to meet certain minimal obligations. More specifically, all Graduate Teaching Assistants (TA's) in the Mathematics Department are expected to faithfully perform the following duties:

1. Satisfactorily complete MATH 695, and complete the SHPP (Sexual Harassment Prevention Program) Seminar. (These only need to be done once, usually in the first year of teaching.)

2. Teach four to six hours per week (usually six), normally in sections of freshman or sophomore courses. (This is for full-time TA's; it would be half this for half-time TA's.) Teaching these sections also includes: proctoring and promptly grading all examinations, meeting regularly with the course supervisor, and holding regular office hours. A small number of TA's will be assigned to grading instead of teaching; those TA's are expected to grade and communicate with the faculty member assigning the grading within a reasonable amount of time.

3. Hold office hours three hours per week.

4. Serve in the departmental Tutoring Center, as assigned.

5. Respect the privacy of students by not discussing their grades in public and not posting their grades in public or on the internet, except for posting by secure aliases (not Social Security Numbers or some portion thereof).

6. Substitute for their colleagues when necessary. On those (rare) occasions when an emergency prevents a TA from teaching a class, the TA should arrange for a substitute and inform the Undergraduate Office with as much advance notice as possible.

7. Proctor final examinations or the qualifying exams and other tasks occasionally.

8. Complete the teaching duties for the entire semester except under dire circumstances. A TA who decides to resign should notify the Office of Graduate Studies in writing at least three weeks before the start of classes.

Experience has shown that most TA's can fulfill their responsibilities in ten to twenty hours of work per week.

The Undergraduate Office will monitor your performance in the classroom and other instructional duties. The Undergraduate Office is also responsible for all teaching schedules of graduate assistants, and will schedule your teaching so as not to conflict with your initial choice of courses. If later you wish to choose different courses, the Undergraduate Office will attempt to change your teaching duties to avoid conflicts, but cannot guarantee satisfaction in all cases.

Finally, it is the policy of the Department that your courses and teaching duties should be your primary concern while here at the University of Maryland. Outside work is strongly discouraged (for those with student visas it is usually even illegal!) and the Undergraduate Office may not be able to schedule your teaching duties to fit outside work requirements.