2.3 Graduate Students Teaching Advanced Classes

  1. Courses are scheduled to meet the curriculum needs of the undergraduate program of the department by the chair and the academic advisor.
  2. Advanced classes include all stand-alone courses taught by a graduate student, including 2000, 3000, and 4000 level.
  3. The Department Chair will make course appointments in consultation with the advisor. Selection criteria are the following:
    1. To teach an advanced stand-alone course:
      1. First, doctoral students must have successfully defended their comps. If a completed D-3 has not been filed by the end of the semester preceding the graduate student’s stand-alone course assignment, the graduate student may be re-assigned to teach an appropriate course based on department needs.
      2. Second, doctoral students should not teach an advanced course for a second time unless they have successfully defended their dissertation prospectus. Teaching assignments for the fall term are made by the end of the preceding spring semester; and therefore it is expected that students who request to teach an advanced course in the fall should complete their prospectus defense by this time. Not defending the prospectus by the end of April will trigger a proceeding with the chair, advisor, and graduate student to set deadlines for the prospectus defense and parameters for the advanced course teaching assignment. The graduate student will be assigned to teach an appropriate course based on department needs in the case that prospectus deadlines are not met.
    2. Graduate students who have relevant expertise in a professional field (e.g., media production, etc.) will be allowed to teach an advanced stand-alone course before successfully defending their comprehensive exams.
  4. Throughout their tenure, graduate students will teach no more than one stand-alone advanced class (which they may repeat), and will teach or assist with no more than three different courses in total (which includes teaching Comm 1200 and also assisting with lab sections of Comm 2100 and Comm 3050).
  5. In consultation with the Chair, the graduate student will select and request an appropriate faculty mentor by the end of the semester preceding their advanced stand-alone course assignment. a. A faculty mentor is required only for the first time a graduate student teaches a given advanced class.
  6. A faculty member may receive compensation for up to 2 mentees per academic year.
  7. Faculty mentors will: (1) approve the syllabus, (2) observe students teach, and (3) meet to discuss progress. Faculty mentors may also provide teaching materials, such as lecture slides and exams, at their discretion. Grade appeals, etc., will still go to the Chair.