<p>I am one of Smith's biggest supporters; however, I'm more than a little dissatisfied about a current teaching situation at Smith. My daughter has UMass grad students teaching two of her courses this semester -- a 200 level math course and a 300 level science course. I wonder whether this has been the case all along or whether Smith's current financial crunch created this situation.</p>
<p>Part of the draw of an LAC is supposed to be "no graduate students teaching," but at Smith, they draw from the nearby flagship. As good a school as UMass is, I'm a little miffed.</p>
<p>I should add that her two-credit course is also taught by either a grad student or an adjunct – something I don’t really care about given the course. Still, this semester, her senior fall, she is being taught by only two full-time Smith professors out of five instructors.</p>
<p>Well, like most LACs, Smith doesn’t promise that you’ll never have a non-Phd teaching your course, only that you won’t be taught by a TA. And none of the grad students teaching at Smith (and I wouldn’t say there are tons, but there are a few) are TAs. </p>
<p>I mean, I guess I can see why you’d be somewhat miffed, but honestly, in a lot of cases it doesn’t matter/you can hardly tell the difference. My intro macro class at Smith was taught by a UMASS grad student and he was one of the best professors I’ve ever had. He really understood how to teach so that studetns learned, something even a lot of tenured profs can’t do. </p>
<p>Also, a lot of times utilizing graduate students allows Smith to offer courses that a college of its size and location would not otherwise be able to offer. For example, all of my Arabic classes at Smith were taught by people from the Arab world earning graduate degrees while on Fulbright scholarships in the U.S., simply because it’s very hard for small schools to attract Phd’s that also speak and teach Arabic (there aren’t that many), but UMASS has a huge world languages center that attracts people that speak in every language. Because of that, Smith can offer its students an education not only in Arabic, but also in Hindi, Farsi, Turkish, Urdu and many other rare but useful languages. </p>
<p>And of course, without a doubt, it’s cheaper to higher a graduate student rather than a full Phd., but I don’t think that 1) the number of grad students has increased or 2) that it has increased because of the budget cuts. I think if anything, she has two grad studetn professors because there are a lot more students who want to study sciences at Smith than there are doctoral faculty immediately available to teach them. Smith could either sacrifice small class size or variety of courses, or it can make use of the resources available to them, and help out some grad students at the saem time. </p>
<p>I assume her two-credit course is an Exercise and Sports Studies or a Dance? those are usually taught by grad students because ESS and Dance are two of Smith’s few graduate programs and those Smithies need the practical work for their degrees.</p>
<p>Yes, the two-credit is an ESS course, which is why I don’t care about it. I would expect an adjunct instructor, even if Smith did not have a graduate program.</p>
<p>It’s not the non-PhD component I care most about but rather the priorities of the instructor. The weaker instructor is teaching an upper level course that counts toward the major and has canceled a few classes because of his or her own workload. To be fair, my D says he (or she – I can’t remember which) knows the material, but he is just not as demanding as other professors. She is not complaining – I am. In fact, she is somewhat relieved by the easy nature of the course because she has been working on grad school applications all semester. Although she would like a more intellectually challenging atmosphere, it would have been much harder to complete the applications, which took about the time and effort of another course. </p>
<p>Now that I know that UMass grad students have been used at Smith in the past, I’m not as ticked off. It kinda was the luck of the draw this semester, I guess. After all, she could have had a weak Smith prof (fortunately, she’s had only one of those) instead. I was just concerned that Smith was not filling professor slots and instead turning to UMass for cheaper, non-benefit-requiring instructors. </p>
<p>Well, I can see why that would be annoying. I’ve never had a grad student prof cancel classes due to his own workload, and I would be really ticked off if he did. After all, he’s being paid to be a professorial stand-in, so he owes it to Smith and his students to behave like a fully PhD’d prof even if he isn’t one. It is a little odd to have a grad student in a 300 level course as well. I’ve had them in 100 level courses or in low 200 level courses (you don’t need be a professor to teach supply and demand to intro econ students). </p>
<p>Sometimes it just takes a while to find good professors, especially because of the salary freeze and the fact that no one is getting considered for tenure right now until we see how the economy will shake out.</p>
<p>I’d feel as you do, MWFN. My D graduated from Smith in '06 and so far as I know was never taught by a grad student. (She was an econ major.) My son is now at another liberal arts school and I would be dismayed if he were being taught by a grad student – *unless *the grad student were something really special, in which case I could “deal.” </p>
<p>I would also be aggravated by **anyone **who canceled class without excellent reason and without making up for it.</p>
<p>After all, if you had wanted your D to be taught by a U Mass grad student, you could have sent her to U Mass, and saved some money. Smith certainly does not promote this situation as one of the advantages of the consortium! :)</p>
<p>My D is a grad student now and is funded via a grad assistantship to two profs, but she only grades papers for their *introductory *classes in her field. She actually turned down a (higher-paying) TA-ship because she wanted to be able to focus on her own studies, and not be torn between the needs of her students and her own agenda – particularly at exam times. (She has no intention of an academic career so teaching experience would not be a big factor for her.) H and I supported her in that decision, as we felt her doing well in grad school was worth more than the additional money she could get for teaching.</p>
<p>Guess I’d be more of a curmudgeon than you! ;)</p>
<p>Graduate students can be excellent teachers even though they haven’t had the experience that a tenure-track prof does. I’m mostly objecting to a 300-level course being taught by one – and by one who seems to want to make the class as easy as possible for his own workload. After all, my D will be a grad student next year (I hope!), and she really needs the foundation that this class should provide. </p>
<p>BTW, I did get my facts wrong about the math course – it’s a 100-level course, not a 200-level one. </p>
<p>Jyber, ask your daughter if she was ever taught by a grad student. I found out this only by accident. S&P’s post suggests that probably many Smithies have had grad student instructors; they don’t necessarily tell us about it, though.</p>
<p>It’s possible that jyber’s daughters just got lucky. Usually Smith turns to grad students to fill a temporary gap, like when they’re between professors, a prof goes on sabbatical, or its a discipline where teachers are in short supply. </p>
<p>It is definitely weird to have a grad student teaching a 300 level though. I haven’t heard of that happening before (Doesn’t mean that it doesn’t happen, but it’s odd). A grad student could successfully teach a basic 100 level skills course and students would never notice, but because 300 levels are supposed to be demanding, they require well-trained experienced teachers. Sorry this didn’t work out in your D’s case (though having been one of those over-worked Smith students, I know how she feels when her 300 level is easier than expected or gets cancelled. You can never catch enough breaks at Smith).</p>
<p>I had a grad student instructor once…for a class I took at UMass. I guess that doesn’t count. (And I knew it was going to be taught by a grad student going in, as it was a class UMass had 10 sections of while Smith had just the one and I wanted to take three classes that were offered in two time slots at Smith, so I had to go off campus for one of them.)</p>
<p>However, I did take a class taught by a tenured Smith professor who frequently canceled class (by the end of the course it had averaged to at least once a week for a class that was supposed to meet three times a week) and she didn’t make it up but still expected us to understand the material as if she did hold class every day it was scheduled. It was a pretty horrible experience.</p>
I was pretty confident of D’s experience, as she did discuss her professors with us. But sent her a query just to make sure. Just got the e-mail response from D:
“My only TAs at Smith were in dance – since Smith had an MFA program in
dance, the grad students taught some of the dance classes. To best of
my knowlege, the dance teachers were the only TAs on campus.”
Clearly the best of her knowledge is not the way it is today. Again, she did graduate in '06, so her experience is somewhat dated. (She even got to experience full in-house dining for her first couple of years.)</p>
<p>Just for the record, a TA is not the same thing as having teacher who’s in their last year or so of graduate school. A TA teaches a class or grades papers under the tutelage of a full time prof so that the prof can focus on their research and the TA can do the mundane day to day stuff. They’re a Teaching Assistant. </p>
<p>In all the classes I’ve had that were taught by graduate students at Smith, the only difference between them and a professor was that they were still a few months away from getting their Phd’s. They’re not hired as TA’s, as assistant teachers getting practical experience, they’re hired as adjunct professors or visiting lecturers. Teaching is supposed to be more or less their full time position, just like people who have regular jobs and go to class at night. Or profs that teach and do research after their classes are over. </p>
<p>It’s unfortunate in MWFN’S D’s instance that her prof is not responsible. But as borgin noted, professors with tenure and Phd’s can be less responsible than grad student teachers as well sometimes. </p>
<p>As a Smith tour guide, I must have said a thousand times that we do not have TA’s at Smith, all classes are taught by professors. And I meant it, and I stand by that. A TA and a professor who is also getting a graduate degree at another university are not the same thing.</p>
<p>^ The query I sent to D was “Also, were you ever taught by a grad student when you were at Smith?” So I figure her response means she had only Smith profs (with the exception of dance classes).</p>
<p>I’m not against adjuncts (hey, I was one until recently), nor am I against graduate students learning how to teach in the undergraduate classroom. After all, they should have limited experience before they end up doing it full-time as assistant professors. And I’m not knocking this instructor’s qualifications – for all I know, he has an MD already or maybe his background makes him uniquely suited for the class. What bothers me is that Smith hired him for an upper level class knowing that he was in the midst of his own graduate studies. He (again, or she) is not one of Smith’s students, either, so they are not fulfilling part of an obligation to train a PhD student. Research universities MUST teach both undergraduate and graduates, and classroom training is part of the package. At an LAC, they can and do hire adjuncts who have degrees and teaching credentials, which is a different matter. But LACs tout their “no graduate student teachers” as their strength. If you look at the arguments on CC about research universities v. LACs, the first argument for LACs is generally “no graduate student teachers.”</p>
<p>Part of this instructor’s mistake is admitting to the class that he is canceling work because he doesn’t have time to grade it. Or telling them that he has a deadline so they won’t be having class. (I might not have known about his UMass grad student status if my daughter hadn’t been so amused by it.) That’s simply immaturity as an instructor and perhaps too much peer identification with the students. Is he unreliable? Well, not really – at least, not in the traditional sense. It’s not as though he has gone AWOL during the semester. Professors can and do cancel classes when they go out of town for professional reasons – to attend conferences or to review grant proposals or to deliver a guest lecture. These absences are either built into the syllabus or covered by colleagues, depending on the type of course it is. </p>
<p>Obviously, I’ve been stewing about this for a while and was somewhat hesitant about bringing this issue to CC, mostly because I don’t want prospective students to believe that Smith offers a subpar education – it doesn’t. My D’s education has been exceptional in every way. In this case, my concern was that this is a budgetary move, to avoid hiring another professor to cover an important course, that doesn’t serve the students well. For all I know, however, this course may have been taught by a rotation of graduate students for years. Or maybe someone recently left and the hiring freeze prevented the department from filling the vacancy. Or maybe the usual prof is on leave or on sabbatical, a valid reason for plugging in a grad student from another institution if no one else in the department is qualified to teach it.</p>
<p>MWFN, your position makes perfect sense to me. The main issue, from my perspective, is that the instructor is putting his own academic priorities **well **before those of his students. Perhaps that is only natural, but IMO he should at least be able to meet his obligation to the course he agreed to take on. If he has to cancel a class, he should make it up. He needs to build into his schedule time to prepare for his class and to thoughtfully grade student work.</p>
<p>A tenured prof, theoretically, is in a position to make his students his top priority. (Perhaps I am naive, but I like to think that is usually the case. I know that each of my kids has had at least some profs who went **well **out of their way for their students, and one in particular from Smith is still a mentor to my D.)</p>
<p>My D had one bad experience at Smith, and it was with a tenured prof. It was for a required course in her major and she was aware that the savvy students frequently took this course at Amherst to avoid that Smith prof. (It was not that the Smith guy was too tough, but rather than he was highly disorganized and not an effective communicator.) She preferred to keep things simple and take the class at her home campus, and she came to regret that decision.</p>
<p>Oh well, one bad apple “don’t spoil the whole bunch.”</p>
<p>Absolutely! While all this has been going on, a professor who taught my D a year and a half ago has been mentoring her on a weekly basis. This prof did not have to be this generous with her time; however, she cares very much about the students. These kind of personal relationships are exactly what I would expect from an LAC.</p>
<p>So, yes, while my D had a less than stellar prof this semester, she has had many truly remarkable ones as well.</p>
(And I knew it was going to be taught by a grad student going in, as it was a class UMass had 10 sections of while Smith had just the one and I wanted to take three classes that were offered in two time slots at Smith, so I had to go off campus for one of them.)</p>