Grad Student Council VP: Survey Shows TFs are 'Overworked'

Graduate Student Council representatives detailed responses to a survey, which found that teaching fellows largely favor smaller section sizes, at their meeting Wednesday night.

GSC Vice President John Gee outlined the results of the 2014 survey for Graduate School of Arts and Sciences students. More than half of the 1,200 respondents indicated that their ideal instruction size is eight to 12 students per section. The survey report went on to recommend reduced section sizes, citing motivations including greater pedagogical value and improved quality of teaching.

The figures also revealed that current or former graduate student teaching fellows wished for more clarification about teaching time requirements.

Over half replied that they would feel uncomfortable saying no to a course head requesting additional work beyond their requirements and a similar number indicated they work eight to 14 hours a week for each section they teach. Of the respondents, 20 percent indicated they had experienced a significant delay—which the survey described as more than two weeks—in receiving paychecks.

Gee said after the meeting that the data seemed to indicate that “TFs as a group appear to be overworked.”

GSC President Summer A. Shafer organized the representatives in a discussion about possible improvements to the teaching experience. Students expressed a desire to introduce ways for previous teaching fellows of a course to provide feedback for future section leaders, such as course instructor evaluations. Representatives also suggested introducing more third-party mediators to act as liaisons between teaching fellows and instructors.

The Harvard Teaching Campaign is currently seeking to place a referendum question on a 12-person section size cap on this month’s Undergraduate Council election ballot. At a UC meeting on Monday, representatives struck down legislation that would have automatically placed the question on the ballot. As a result, the teaching campaign will need to garner 670 signatures by Sunday in order for the question to be included.

Luis A. Perez ’16, one of the organizers of the undergraduate wing of the Campaign, said he is “very confident” that the petition will gather the required number of signatures by the end of the week. Around 400 students have signed the petition so far, according to Perez.

The GSC also appointed an international students representative and filled two vacant positions on a committee on libraries.

—Staff writer Noah J. Delwiche can be reached at noah.delwiche@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @ndelwiche.

—Staff Writer Zara Zhang can be reached at zara.zhang@thecrimson.com.