As approved by the Committee on Teaching Assistants in 1999, and starting in Fall Quarter, 1999,
graduate students may perform teaching assistantships in undergraduate, graduate or medical school
courses in the Biological Sciences Division to fulfill the requirement. Courses in other divisions are not
eligible (exceptions may be made for students in the Biophysical Sciences graduate program). If students
choose to take the TA training course (see below), it may serve as one of the two TAships. Students may
not TA the same course twice in fulfillment of their Teaching Assistantship requirement.

Students should contact the course instructor directly to apply for the TAship. When a position has been
secured, it should be registered as BSD TAship for 100 units of credit:

Fall: BSDG 100-50100-01
Winter: BSDG 100-50600-01
Spring: BSDG 100-50300-01
Summer: BSDG 100-50500-01

Students must also complete a green TEACHING ASSISTANT REQUIREMENT FORM

• Pick up: Office of Graduate Affairs Graduate Program Administrator, in BSLC 104B
• Download PDF Form

• The student TA fills out and signs the top section.
• The student should then ask the course instructor to fill out and sign the center section. Make
  sure the instructor knows what he/she is signing, since the course instructor is guaranteeing
  that the TA will be given real teaching opportunities (see section Eligible Teaching
  Assistantships). Required elements include course number, course title (name of the course),
  the name of the professor (the course director’s evaluation will go to the professor listed), and
  the teaching opportunity that shows eligibility.
  
• The department’s representative from the Committee on Teaching Assistants must then check
  over and sign the bottom section.
• Your graduate program administrator may also sign the form, and may wish to keep a copy.
  
• The completed form should be returned as soon as the TAship has been arranged, or at the
  latest at the time of registration for the relevant quarter (usually the 8th week of the prior quarter),
  to BSLC 104B.
  
• For any course which does not have a description listed in the TA booklet, you must
  complete a “Non-Listed Required TAship Form” in addition to the green TA Requirement Form
  before your TAship will be approved. This form must be completed and approved before an unlisted TAship is eligible to fulfill your TA requirement, so it is important to complete and return the form to BSLC 104B by the end of the first week of the quarter.
• Without the completed and signed forms, the TAship will not qualify for the Divisional Requirement.

Only courses with significant student contact and a high level of teaching-related activities will qualify to
fulfill the TA requirement. These kinds of teaching assistantships generally carry a stipend level of $1200
or above. Appropriate activities include:

1) Running laboratory sessions or leading field trips. (Such courses generally carry a stipend
level of $1500 or $1800).
2) Giving one or two formal, instructor-monitored lectures in the course.
3) Leading weekly TA-run discussion sessions that are a required part of the course. Giving
only one or two review sessions before exams is insufficient for the requirement.

In order to be eligible to fulfill the requirement, a TAship must contain at least one of the above
elements. Based on information supplied by course instructors, courses that qualify for fulfilling part of
the Divisional teaching requirement are so marked in this booklet. Students may not TA the same course
twice in fulfillment of their Teaching Assistantship.

Another criterion of any TAship chosen by a student to fulfill the teaching requirement should be that the
course instructor is willing to fulfill certain formal (written evaluation, grade recommendation) and
informal obligations (communication with the TA on goals and expectations of course at the beginning,
continual monitoring and feedback on problems and progress throughout, and discussion about
instructor’s evaluation of the TA and assigned grade at the end of the course). The TA should expect this
kind of interaction with the course instructor of a teaching assistantship

The number of TAships listed for any course is based on a projection of the number of students who will enroll in
that course. If the enrollment is very different from the projection, this may decrease or increase the number of
TAs required for the course. Students should be aware that even though they may already have made
arrangements with the course director to serve as TA for a particular course, there is no guarantee that their
services will still be required if the number of students enrolled in the course is less than initially anticipated.
There is also no guarantee that the courses projected to be offered at press time will actually be offered.

As approved by the Committee on Teaching Assistants and endorsed by the Dean’s Council in Summer,
1992, graduate students have the option of taking the Teaching Assistant Training Course for credit, to
fulfill one of the two TA requirements. This course, offered every Fall quarter, covers a range of
theoretical and practical aspects of teaching in a variety of formats including lectures, panels, and much
interactive discussion and presentation. Videotaping students while they present formal, prepared minilectures
to the class, followed by self- and class critique, is a hallmark of this course. Faculty participants
are selected on the basis of student recommendations as well as high visibility and demonstration of
interest in the future of teaching at the University of Chicago.

The driving force of the course are two “Super” TAs, advanced graduate students with extensive teaching
assistant experience. Since the TA Training Course involves intensive student participation, enrollment is
limited to thirty participants. The course number for the TA Training Course (worth 100 credits) is BSDG
100-50000-01.

Anyone wishing to sign up for the course should let the Office of Graduate Affairs know (2-3905, BLSC
104B), since space is limited and places are allotted on a first-come, first-served basis, on a list that is
started during the summer. Green TA Requirement Forms must also be completed for this course:
students should complete the top half, fill in “TA Training Course” in the space in the second section for
“Course Title,” and turn them in to BSCL 104B. Additionally, the course must be registered for credit
during Fall Quarter registration.

After teaching twice to fulfill the requirement, students may hold Teaching Assistantships for extra
remuneration in courses with unfilled TA positions. Medical students, undergraduates, graduate students
who do not have to meet the teaching requirement, and graduate students from outside the Division may
also hold Teaching Assistantships with remuneration in unfilled positions. This Teaching Assistantship
Opportunities booklet should be helpful to them as well.

TAships that are only for grading and photocopying services, generally considered half-time TAships and
carrying a $600 stipend, are never eligible to fulfill the teaching requirement. These are the only TAships
that students are permitted to perform for remuneration before fulfilling the requirement. Some of these
are listed in this booklet as well.

Students with extensive previous teaching experience at a graduate student level (e.g. while studying for a
Master’s degree) are permitted to petition for waiver of the teaching requirement. The petitioner must
provide documented evidence of prior teaching with enough detail that the Committee on Teaching
Assistants, which decides on petitions, can properly evaluate the previous experience in comparison to the
teaching assistant experience at the University of Chicago. Teaching experience acquired while the
student was an undergraduate, or teaching high school students, is not eligible for waiver.

No student will be considered exempt from the teaching requirement until a formal petition has been submitted and the
Committee on Teaching Assistants has delivered its ruling. Questions about petitioning should be
addressed to the Student Programs Coordinator, BSD Office of Graduate Affairs, 2-3905.

• Green TA Requirement Forms should be submitted no later than registration for the quarter in which
  the TAship will be completed.
• For any course that is NOT LISTED in the TA Opportunities Book, a supplemental form must be
  completed (Non-Listed Required TAship Form) and submitted by the end of the first week of the
  quarter.
• The student must register for the divisional Teaching Assistantship. If the forms or the registration
  are not completed on time, credit will not be granted.
• Courses in other divisions are not eligible for completion of the BSD Divisional Requirement.
• Exceptions may be made in the case of students in Biophysical Sciences.
• Students may not TA the same course twice in fulfillment of their Divisional Requirement.
• Courses must provide the TA with significant student contact and a high-level of teaching related
  activities, which may include running weekly labs, leading regular field trips, giving one or two
  formal, instructor-monitored lectures in the course, or leading weekly TA-run discussion sections that
  are a required part of the course.
  
• Evaluations must be completed and submitted to the Office of Graduate Affairs by the course director,
  the TA, and the TA’s students before credit is granted. Course evaluations are not an acceptable
  substitute.