A Teaching Assistant (title code 2310) is chosen for excellent scholarship and promise as a teacher, and serves an apprenticeship under the active tutelage and supervision of a regular faculty member. The department chair, acting upon nominations made by department members, is authorized to appoint TAs. However, the Dean of the Graduate Division must approve all exceptions to appointment criteria.
The selection, supervision, and training of all TAs are important responsibilities of the teaching department, and in particular the department chair. All candidates for appointment and reappointment are subject to careful review and recommendation.
The TA is not responsible for the instructional content of a course, for selection of student assignments, for planning of examinations, or for determining the term grade for students. Neither is a TA to be assigned responsibility for instructing the entire enrollment of a course nor for providing the entire instruction of a group of students enrolled in a course. The TA is responsible for the conduct of recitation, laboratory, or quiz sections under the active direction and supervision of a regular member of the faculty to whom final responsibility for the course's entire instruction, including the performance of TAs, has been assigned. (Refer to the UCSB Red Binder Section IV-10 for further information.)
Eligibility
Before students may TA for the department, they must:
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attend the campus-wide TA orientation, which takes place at the beginning of Fall quarter every year
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register, attend and pass 1 unit of PSTAT 501: Teaching Assistant Training for Fall quarter. The program will be run by the Faculty TA Training Coordinator, with the assistance of the Lead TA. ***This may be done concurrently with the first quarter TAship
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[international students only] complete and pass the Teaching Assistant Language Evaluation
In order to maintain eligibility for TA appointments, every TA must:
- currently be registered as a graduate student for a minimum of 8 units
- be in good academic standing
- have satisfactory quarterly evaluations.
- attend all mandatory TA meetings (to be arranged).
In addition, new TAs are required to register, attend and pass PSTAT 501: Teaching Assistant Training, a two-unit class for Fall quarter. The program will be run by the Faculty TA Training Coordinator, with the assistance of the Lead TA.