More students and fewer TAs in history courses

JULIA TIERNAN/YH A dearth of graduate students is putting stress on many Yale classes.

"From the beginning of shopping period, all anybody could talk about was how amazing the history class on the Cold War was," Michael Stern, CC '02, said. When he was cut from the class, he was disappointed. Stern was one of more than one hundred sophomores who had to leave John Gaddis' popular course, partly because there were not enough teaching assistants (TAs) for the large class.

The shortage of TAs and unexpected overcrowding of classes has plagued many history courses recently. History professor Thomas Arnold was unable to find a single graduate student TA for his Renaissance Italy course. As a result, the entire lecture course of over 60 students meets on Fridays with Arnold. Situations such as these have left faculty members in uncomfortable positions. American studies lecturer Gaspar Gonzalez, GRD '99, encountered a similar problem in his class, Formation of Modern American Culture, 1876-1919. Gonzalez has approximately 135 students in his class—more than he had expected—and was left scrounging for graduate students to lead his sections. He found one graduate student from the Forestry School and another American studies graduate student, who had to petition for special permission to teach the section. Catherine Silver, PC '02, explained that the first two weeks of class were confusing due to efforts to juggle the large enrollment and lack of teaching assistants. "For the first week or so there were students sitting on the floor until we moved," she complained. "There weren't enough convenient section times, and sections didn't start meeting until the week before our first optional assignment was even due."

History professor John Merriman teaches a lecture on France since 1871, and was unable to find enough teaching assistants to provide small enough sections for all of the students who enrolled in his course. He does not believe in capping, so he was forced to reorganize his course, with significant consequences to the curriculum. Merriman chose to make section attendance optional. With not enough teaching assistants and section no longer mandatory, he also removed the semester's research paper assignment, which had been a substantial component of student coursework. Merriman has tried to alleviate the situation by taking the unusual step of employing a graduate student from another university. He declined to specify which university the student is attending.

Merriman explained the causes affecting the enrollment and section crunch. "The history department is contracting," he said. "Though it is still the largest at Yale, its graduate enrollment is less than it has been in the previous years." He believes the teaching shortage lies in the selectivity of the graduate school coupled with a continued reliance upon discussion sections. Compounding this problem is a longstanding policy prohibiting graduate students from teaching more than two sections. This regulation severely limits the already narrowing number of graduate students eligible to teach. Though Merriman believes that his course has sufficiently adapted to the current situation, he insists that TAs are absolutely necessary for his introductory class.

When questioned about graduate student teaching policy, Graduate School Dean Susan Hockfield said, "Teaching is only one part of an entire education for a grad student." She said the policy was designed to ensure that "the teaching opportunity doesn't interfere with the progress of the dissertation." According to Hockfield, the responsibility toward students lies with academic departments and professors. "It is not necessary that every course taught at Yale be led by a graduate student," she said. She also stressed that professors face over-enrollment and section difficulties every year, and the Administration has not yet felt the need to adjust its policies on graduate student teaching.

Gonzalez said, however, that limiting graduate student availability can inhibit learning in large courses, and a force professors to alter their syllabi and curricula to accommodate such shortages. What Gonzalez found to be most frustrating was "the way in which the Administration pretends that there isn't a problem and the responsibility then shifts to the faculty, the graduate students, and in part to the undergraduates." He said that the Administration ignores the problem, "when the true interest for all parties is in the quality of education."

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