THURSDAY,FEBRUARY 13.2003
NEWS
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
3A
GTAs balance homework, teaching
Change from student to a teaching assistant can be tricky,pleasing
By Nicole Roché
nroche@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Just three months after graduation, Samantha Parkes was back in school. This time, she was at the front of the classroom.
One of the most difficult aspects of the job, Parkes said, was balancing her own homework with work from the English classes she taught.
For many graduate teaching assistants, the transition from student to teacher can be challenging.
"I guess 'terrifying' is a good word to describe it," Parkes, Overland Park graduate student in English, said. "I'm not that much older than a lot of my students and I'm still a student as well."
"It's like juggling a chain saw, an orange and a feather."
Parkes said, "You have all these different things to deal with at once."
Brooke Stokley Finan, a Wichita graduate student who also teaches English, said sometimes her school work suffered because of the demands of the job.
"It's much easier to not do your own work than to let down 42 people who are counting on you." Stokley Finan said.
With 873 positions, GTAs made up nine percent of the University of Kansas' total faculty in the Fall 2002 semester, according to the Office of Institutional Research and Planning Web site.
Jeannette Johnson, assistant to Provost David Schulenburger, said GTAs were essential because they saved money for the University and were the faculty of the future.
Carissa Hill, a physics GTA said she felt qualified to teach her lab section, but she was still apprehensive about teaching for the first time.
"It felt like someone was
shoving me in front of a classroom of 30 people and saying. 'Good luck.' " Hill said.
Hill said she attended a GTA training session that outlined grading and safety procedures, but the session didn't emphasize teaching specifics.
At first it was difficult to be sympathetic in the classroom, Hill said. Students wanted her to explain each detail of the lab, but she wanted them to learn the material through experience.
"The first semester my reviews were the worst," Hill said. "One person wrote, 'What can I say? I hate her.'"
That was four semesters ago, and Hill said she now was more confident and compassionate as a lab instructor.
"I know physics can be very frustrating," Hill said. "Learning anything for the first time is difficult."
Parkes, who has taught English two semesters, said she had problems grading her peers at first.
"I worry, 'Is this person not
"It's like juggling a chainsaw, an orange and a feather. You have all these different things to deal with at once."
Samantha Parkes Graduate teaching assistant
going to get into medical school because of me?" Parkes said. "But I have to remember it's the grade they've earned, not just the grade I'm giving them."
Parkes said many students are intelligent, interesting people she would be friends with if she weren't teaching them, which made the job even more tricky.
Despite juggling an arduous schedule, Parkes said being a GTA was a rewarding job.
"When one person comes up and says, 'I actually like poetry now' — that's what I live for," she said.
— Edited by Julie Jantzer
Courtney Kuhlen/Kansan
Graduate teaching assistant Samantha Parkes listens as one of her students responds to a question she posed in the classes' circle discussion of Nathaniel Hawthorne's short story "Young Goodman Brown." Parkes joked with her students at the beginning of class yesterday afternoon that being a teacher was cool, but it was sad for her to know that people would celebrate when she was sick.
Office revises campus discrimination, harassment policies
Modified guidelines to eliminate overlap ambiguity in policy
By Jessica Hood jhood@kansan.com Kansas staff writer
The University of Kansas Equal Opportunity Office has revised some of its policies to make sure they conform to state and federal laws.
The office's new policies on
discrimination, sexual harassment and racial and ethnic harassment were approved by Chancellor Robert Hemenway in December and became effective Feb.6.
Danielle Dempsey-Swopes, interim director of the Equal Opportunity Office, said the policies were reviewed last fall to verify the University's policies were in compliance with recent federal rulings.
Dempsey-Swopes said the racial harassment definition was
changed because in the late '80s and early '90s there were several rulings involving universities where the definitions were too broad.
"We wanted to makes sure our definition wasn't an over limitation and just streamline the definition," she said.
The new definition of racial and ethnic harassment also was changed so it did not cover areas already covered by other statutes. For example, Dempsey-Swopes said if an individual felt
threatened, there were other statutes that would protect them.
The changes made to the sexual harassment policy removed the procedure for handling complaints. This change separates procedures from policy so procedures exist for all complaints, not just sexual harassment.
"The goal was to keep the spirit of policies," Dempsey-Swopes said. "The important thing is to make sure it is not overbroad and there is an environment where diversity is
appreciated."
Students were notified of the new policies via e-mail. Jen Anderson, Wichita senior, said she received the e-mail but didn't pay much attention to the message.
"It probably wasn't important enough to spend time reading," she said.
The new policies can be found on the office's Web site. www.ku.edu/-equalop/, under the services and information section.
The Equal Opportunity Office has four main functions. The office monitors hiring unclassified staff and faculty, investigating complaints of discrimination, updating the affirmative action plan and investigating complaints from students, faculty or staff.
— Edited by Melissa Hermreck
The Robert J. Dole Institute of Politics University of Kansas
Presents
- The Dole Forum -
An Evening with
Roger Wilkins
Pulitzer-Prize Winning Journalist & Presidential Historian
Sunday, February 16, 2003, 7:30 p.m. Woodruff Auditorium, Kansas Union alimentary Tickets (limit 2) are available at all KU Ticket Outlets, Student Union Activities and the Lied Center Box Office or by telephoning (785) 864-2787.
A
---
A
(    )