The Undergraduate Assembly, the Graduate Student Association Council and the Graduate and Professional Student Association all passed a similar resolution this past week to create a joint task force on graduate student teaching.
The UA was the last body to pass a resolution calling for the creation of this task force, and if GAPSA and GSAC accept the amendments to the proposal made by the UA, the creation of the task force will be finalized at the end of this week.
The issues the task force will address include the influence that teaching has on graduate students, the type of support that graduate students who teach receive and the impact that graduate student teachers have on undergraduate education.
According to GSAC Chairwoman Elise Carpenter, a graduate student in the School of Arts and Sciences, there was originally a discussion of a joint task force to examine graduate student unionization. Graduate Employees Together-University of Pennsylvania, the group of students seeking to unionize, are still awaiting a decision from the National Labor Relations Board on whether they are permitted to hold union elections at Penn.
However, as unionization "will ultimately be decided by the NLRB and an election," Carpenter said that the idea for a task force for that issue was dropped.
"It can distract GSAC from other advocacy issues," Carpenter explained.
According to UA Chairman Seth Schreiberg, when GAPSA and GSAC wanted to address graduate student teaching through the use of a task force, he believed that the UA should be involved.
The College senior said that an impartial group that deals with graduate student teaching is certainly needed.
It's about "how effective the TAs are able to teach... since TAs teach undergraduates, it's an issue that affects undergraduates," Schreiberg said.
UA Vice Chairman Ethan Kay said he thinks the creation of this task force is important because the position of graduate students has an impact on the undergraduate population.
"The goal is to maximize the classroom experience... and to open up a new space for discussion," said Kay, a Wharton senior. "Their well-being is our well-being."
"There are a couple ways that people will look into these issues," Carpenter said. "The task force will do its own research."
The task force will ask the administration for a report on graduate student teaching, including TA evaluations and other quantitative data. The task force will also try to compare graduate student teaching at Penn to that of its peer institutions, as well as put together a collection of concerns that it gathers from students, Carpenter said.
John Jung, GAPSA's vice chairman for policy, said he had spoken with Schreiberg about issues related to graduate student teaching, and it was suggested that all three groups get together.
The task force will do "both research and lay out recommendations on how to work on behalf of these groups," said Jung, a medical student.
"The task force proposal came about through the initiation of John Jung. He spearheaded it," Carpenter said.
"Graduate teaching is something very relevant to all three groups," Carpenter added.
The task force will be comprised of students appointed by each body. Dan Hou, an Engineering senior and UA member, will serve as the UA chairman for administrative policy on the task force.
The task force will present its initial findings to GAPSA, GSAC and the UA in January.
