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����ֱ�� and Graduate School and Arts and Sciences

Since its founding in 1885, ����ֱ�� has been the preeminent college for women interested in the pursuit of wisdom necessary to challenge the world's expectations. Our community has repeatedly broken barriers to achieve greater equity through exceptional academics and a deep dedication to learning. Our more than 35 undergraduate majors span the humanities, sciences, social sciences, and arts. Two co-educational graduate schools offer selective master’s and Ph.D. programs across the Arts, Sciences, and Social Work, and our Postbaccalaureate Premedical Program is one of the most successful in the nation for placing students into medical school. We are dedicated to diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility, which serve as the engine for excellence and innovation, helping us pave the way for gender equity and inspiring brilliant minds who find life-long community here.

The Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) provides Ph.D. education in Classical and Near Eastern Archaeology; Greek, Latin and Classical Studies; History of Art; Math; and Physics. ����ֱ��’s liberal arts environment provides graduate students with a broad educational foundation and promotes the development of well-rounded scholars, including the opportunity to work as Teaching Assistants (TAs). This handbook is designed to provide graduate TAs with a general framework for approaching their roles in the classroom.

TA Duties and Responsibilities

In the broadest terms, TAs provide pedagogical and administrative support to instructors and undergraduate students for an academic course. Common TA duties include:

• Assisting instructors with general classroom activities
• Leading discussions in class or in review sessions
• Assisting with or overseeing laboratory experiments
• Mentoring and supervising student research associated with the class or in science research labs
• Holding weekly office hours
• Meeting with students to discuss course material, or in preparation for assignments
• Teaching recitations
• Grading assignments
• Lecturing (occasionally)
• Covering a class for an instructor who must be absent (occasionally)

Exact duties and responsibilities vary according to the needs of the course and the instructor’s pedagogical style and preferences.

Maximum Hours and Student Employment Policy

According to the college’s Student Employment Policy, students may not spend more than 17.5 hours per week on TA-related duties. It is important that graduate TAs balance their TA responsibilities with their own degree progress (e.g. course work; exam preparation; dissertation research). To do so, TAs should practice careful time management and establish clear communication with the course instructor throughout the semester.

TAs should arrange to meet with the course instructor at or prior to the start of the semester to discuss their assigned duties and clarify the instructor’s expectations. At this meeting, if the TA believes that the workload to likely exceed the 17.5-hour weekly maximum, they should express their concern and discuss options for reducing their workload. Both parties should leave this meeting with a shared understanding of what is expected. Additional suggestions for what to discuss at the initial Instructor-TA meeting are provided in the Working with Faculty section.

After the initial conversation, TAs should periodically assess how much time their TA duties are taking per week. As intermediary figures between the course’s students and instructor, TAs often face expectations and demands from both parties and may experience some “scope creep,” or the gradual and unchecked expansion of their responsibilities. TAs who find that their TA responsibilities are exceeding the 17.5-hour weekly maximum should communicate their concerns to the course instructor to discuss solutions. TAs and instructors may consider meeting at regular intervals to discuss any questions or issues related to the course, which will keep the lines of communication open.

While TAs are responsible for completing their assigned duties in a timely manner, they are graduate students first and foremost and the course instructor holds ultimate responsibility for the course’s structure, deadlines, lesson plans, final grading, and any student issues.

TA Evaluations and Observations

TA Evaluations

GSAS requires that TAs circulate a TA Evaluation Survey to enrolled students at end of each term. Evaluations serve the following purposes:

1. Documenting the contribution of TAs to course instruction at the College
2. Documenting the TA’s development as a teacher, for use in future letters of recommendation and/or consideration for teaching prizes or fellowships
3. Providing feedback to the TA as they develop their teaching skills

Near the end of the term, TAs will receive a link to their TA Evaluation Survey, along with instructions for distributing the link and the students’ deadline for responding. While not all students may submit an evaluation, TAs should remind and encourage students to do so to maximize the amount of feedback they receive. After the evaluation submission deadline has passed, the GSAS Office will provide the TA Evaluation Survey results to the TA, the course instructor, and the TA’s departmental Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).

Instructor Feedback and Observations

Though not required, TAs may ask the course instructor to provide them with formal feedback on their performance as a TA (e.g. observation notes; a teaching letter). Formal feedback is especially useful for TAs who plan to teach in their future career. TAs may also want to ask another faculty member, such as their dissertation supervisor, lab PI, or DGS, to observe a session of their teaching to provide formal written feedback. Any visits from other faculty should be cleared with the course instructor first.

The GSAS Office can store all written feedback, including confidential letters, in the student’s academic file. All feedback on teaching may be reviewed if the TA is later considered for a teaching fellowship or prize, and for letters of recommendation for academic jobs.

Teaching Assistantship Outcomes

Graduate TAs develop a range of skills that prepare them for careers in and beyond education, including but not limited to:

1. Public speaking, discussion facilitation, and classroom leadership
2. Translating complex or challenging concepts into accessible language
3. Preparing lecture or review session notes and plotting out the course of a discussion
4. Anticipating classroom needs and responding to student questions, concerns, and crises
5. Mentoring students as they navigate course material and prepare for assignments
6. Grading student assessments and, when applicable, providing constructive feedback on writing
7. Collaborating effectively with faculty to ensure a course’s success

Though serving as a TA will certainly be challenging at times, it is also an instructive, enriching, and rewarding experience.

Financial Package for Teaching Assistantships

Distribution of TAships Across Departments

Teaching Assistantships provide graduate students with financial support award packages in exchange for a maximum of 17.5 hours per week. Teaching Assistantships are available to students in Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics from their first year onward. In Archaeology, Classics, and History of Art, Teaching Assistantships are typically awarded to more advanced students. Like all funding allocations, Teaching Assistantship decisions are recommended by the student’s home department and approved by the Dean of Graduate Studies at the end of the previous spring semester. TAs are then assigned to courses by their home departments.

Financial Support Award Packages and Payment Structure

In GSAS, Teaching Assistantships carry a stipend commensurate with that of the GSAS Fellowship in the same fiscal year. In 2025-2026, the academic-year stipend for TAs is $33,500. In addition to the stipend, Teaching Assistantships carry a subsidy for the college’s student health insurance, a tuition award of up to two units per semester, and eligibility for a Supplemental Summer Research Fellowship (SSRF) and/or a Supplemental Summer Research Assistantship (SSRA), subject to additional eligibility criteria and pending the Dean’s approval. Two course units per semester is the maximum course load permitted to students who are TAing.

As with graduate fellowships, the academic year stipend is distributed across twelve months, mirroring the payment structure commonly used for tenure-track faculty in the U.S. TAs receive bi-weekly payments during the academic year, or while they are serving as a TA, and monthly fellowship payments in June, July, and August. Please see the following links for current payment dates:

Biweekly Pay Dates: /inside/offices-services/finance-administration/payroll/student-employees/student-payroll-schedule.

Monthly Pay Dates: /inside/offices-services/finance-administration/purchases-payments/reimbursements-other-payments-fellowships/student-fellowship-deadline-payment-calendar.

Tax Information

Teaching Assistantships, considered to be internships for tax purposes, are taxable income for students. The College is required to deduct federal, state, and local income taxes from internship payments. At the end of the calendar year, internship payments are reported as wages in IRS Form W-2. While fellowships are also subject to taxation, there is no withholding by the college. This means that the paychecks that TAs receive as summer fellowship monies will differ from the ones received as a TA, even if the total gross stipend is the same.

More information on the College’s Fellowship and Internship Policy and Procedures can be found at: /inside/offices-services/finance-administration/purchases-payments/reimbursements-other-payments-fellowships.

Working With Faculty

While instructors are often experienced collaborators who will take the lead on setting expectations, establishing lines of communication, and steering the trajectory of the course, TAs may find the following information helpful for navigating their working relationship with the course instructor.

Initial Meeting

TAs should arrange to meet with the course instructor at or prior to the start of the semester. In addition to discussing their duties and clarifying expectations, TAs may want to raise any of the following discussion topics at this meeting.

• The projected learning outcomes of the course. What are the primary areas of knowledge and skills that students should acquire through taking this course?
• Are there any commonalities between students who typically enroll? For example, do the students enrolled in an introductory Physics course tend to be interested in the Physics major or are they fulfilling a general science requirement?
• How grading will work. How will grading be assigned to or divided with the TA? What criteria, rubric or grading standards will the instructor use?
• Whether the TA is expected to attend lectures or course meetings.  It is common for TAs to be required to attend all lectures to stay on top of the class’s progression through course material.
• Theoretical approach(es) to course material. If the theoretical approach favored by the instructor is part of significant scholarly debate, the TA and instructor may wish to discuss how this will be handled in class.
• A schedule for regular meetings. Meeting may be frequent (weekly or bi-weekly) or set at logical junctures of the course (e.g. before assignment deadlines).
• Whether the TA will be responsible for contributions to the syllabus or assignment development.

Ongoing Collaboration

The working relationship between instructors and TAs should be characterized by clear communication, mutual respect, and careful problem solving. In the classroom, TAs should be careful to refer to instructors by the name that they prefer undergraduate students call them (e.g. Professor Jones), even if the TA and instructor are on a first-name basis. Any differences of opinion about the interpretation of course material should be handled with care and respect for scholarly disagreement. Ideally, significant differences of opinion should be discussed with the faculty member before they are discussed in the classroom. It is never appropriate for TAs to undermine or in any way disparage the course instructor or their viewpoints, and vice versa. When handled respectfully, differences in opinion or approach can make for a richer student experience. Should a TA and instructor reach an impasse over different scholarly approaches or find they have irreconcilable political or ideological convictions in relation to course material, or, for that matter, simply have personality clashes, in most cases, these conflicts can be resolved or navigated with respectful communication between the TA and instructor. In cases where such differences cannot be resolved in this way, one or both parties should speak to the department chair.

TA Orientation, Title IX, and On-Campus Resources

TA Orientation

Each year in the week before fall classes start, GSAS holds a TA Orientation that introduces students to the resources available at the College to support TAs as they develop as teachers. Attendance is mandatory for first-time TAs and strongly encouraged for returning TAs. Topics covered at the TA Orientation include Title IX rights and responsibilities, the resources available through the Teaching and Learning Institute (TLI), promoting equity in the classroom, and assistive and instructional technology.

Title IX

Cary Carr, Associate Director of Civil Rights and Bias Response / Title IX Coordinator

610-526-7863; Ccarr1@brynmawr.edu

/inside/policies-guidelines-handbooks/sexual-misconduct

TAs have mandatory reporting responsibilities to their students for alleged occurrences of sexual misconduct. The Title IX Office will provide an orientation on Title IX responsibilities at the TA Orientation and is available to answer questions throughout the year.

Teaching and Learning Institute (TLI)

/academics/centers-institutes-projects/teaching-learning-institute/programs-opportunities/tli-opportunities-graduate-students

The Teaching and Learning Institute offers workshops and programming focused on fundamental pedagogical issues and inclusive and equitable approaches to teaching and learning.

Impact Center for Equity, Inclusion, and Community Life

The Impact Center for Community, Equity, and Understanding ​implements programs and activities ​that address issues of diversity, power, and privilege​ with a goal of improving the campus climate ​and enhancing community life at ����ֱ��. This is done with a lens that advances ​anti-racism, wellness, welcome, and belonging ​for all students, especially those who know ​the experience of marginalization first-hand.​

Library and Information Technology Services

LITS supports the work of faculty, students, staff, guest researchers, alumnae/i, and prospective students my maximizing the benefits of information resources and technology for learning and scholarship in ����ֱ��’s liberal arts context.

LITS’ mission is to partner with ����ֱ�� departments and community members to enable teaching, learning, research, and administrative work institution-wide by providing contemporary tools, data, scholarly resources, and expertise.

Letters of Recommendation

Though it is not part of a TA’s regular duties, TAs may be asked for letters of recommendation (LORs) from students. TAs are not obligated to write LORs, nor should they if they believe they are not the right person to attest to the student’s merit or do not have adequate time to produce a quality letter. In most instances, undergraduate students are better served obtaining LORs from course instructors or their other professors.

Declining a Request

TAs who do not want to provide an LOR for any reason should decline the request politely but clearly. The following examples provide language for declining an LOR request:

• Example 1: “Thank you for this request. While I would like to provide you with a letter of recommendation, I don’t believe I could adequately speak to your skills in _______ since our time together in class has been so limited. In any case, your application will be much stronger with a letter of recommendation from a tenure-track faculty member. I would suggest reaching out to Professor Smith to ask if they would be willing to write you a letter of recommendation. Best of luck with your application!”
• Example 2: “Thank you for this request – I’m honored that you asked. Unfortunately, I am under too many time constraints this semester and just will not be able to provide you with a quality letter of recommendation by the date specified. In any case, your application will be much stronger with a letter of recommendation from a tenure-track faculty member. Perhaps we could chat after recitation on Friday about who would be a good professor to ask?”

Undergraduate students do not always know that LORs from tenure-track faculty are weighed more heavily than letters from other writers, so TAs should inform them, whether or not they ultimately write an LOR for the student. In some instances where a TA knows the student better than the course instructor, the instructor may ask the TA to contribute some parts of the letter, or the TA may feel comfortable writing a letter themselves.

Accepting a Request

TAs who agree to write letters should ensure that they have a minimum of four to six weeks to complete it. LORs take more time than most expect, and TAs will want to revise the letter multiple times to ensure they are providing the best overview of the student’s work. They should also request that the student provide any forms or instructions for the LOR, as well as a draft of any materials they will be submitting as part of their application package. Those materials will help TAs to understand how the student is presenting themselves.

Sample templates and tips for writing LORs can be found here:

• UC Berkeley Graduate Student Instructor Teaching and Learning Center: Sample Letter of Recommendation ()
• University of Washington Bothell: Sample Letter of Recommendation ()
• UNC Chapel Hill Writing Center: Letters of Recommendation ()

LORs written for institutions in the United States have an enthusiastic tone. A neutral tone may be interpreted as evidence that a recommender has a less than favorable opinion of the student. An LOR should be honest, but a neutral or negative letter may impact a student more negatively than intended. If a TA is uncomfortable providing a wholly positive letter for a student, they should decline to write.

Omissions tend to be interpreted as negative. Writers should make at least a brief mention of the student’s academic skills, motivation, commitment, and interpersonal skills. LOR writers should avoid any explicitly negative statements, no matter how much the letter instructions may insist that letters should address any shortcomings.