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Policy on the Appointment of Graduate Student Instructors for Undergraduate Courses

NOTE: The GSI Request Form in the CARS Portal should be used for requests to appoint Graduate Student Instructors (GSI) for undergraduate courses only.

If there are questions regarding GSIs for graduate courses, please contact Graduate Council.

GSI TEACHING APPOINTMENT POLICY AND CRITERIA FOR UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

“Graduate student instructor” (GSI) refers to a graduate student having primary responsibility for the teaching of a course, either a Teaching Fellow or Associate In, not a Teaching Assistant.

The principles outlined below are designed to permit flexibility in staffing courses and to provide teaching opportunities for graduate students, a valuable component of professional development. However, CEP and CCI believe that good educational policy requires that Senate faculty regularly teach in the core of each major program. Regular involvement of Senate faculty in the undergraduate curriculum contributes to excellence and continuity, and ensures that Senate faculty have the first-hand knowledge needed to exercise effective curricular oversight. In addition, excessive use of graduate instructors limits faculty interaction with majors and prospective majors, making it difficult for students to get faculty guidance and appropriate letters of reference and limits the opportunities of students to interact with established scholars.

DETERMINE THE CORRECT TITLE: 

For Associate in Ph.D. Students ( CAPM 700.411,)
  1. A master’s degree or equivalent training.
  2. At least one year (3 quarters at UCSC) of college teaching experience, either as an instructor or a teaching assistant.

For Associate in MFA Students

  1. Should be in their second to last or last quarter.
  2. One year of teaching (3 quarters at UCSC)  as either an instructor or a teaching assistant.

For Teaching Fellow (APM 410 )

  1. Advancement to candidacy for the doctorate.
  2. At least two years (6 quarters at UCSC) of college teaching experience, either as an instructor or a teaching assistant

For GSIs expected to reach title qualifications by the time of the appointment please note that approval is contingent on reaching the required benchmarks.

CEP CRITERIA FOR APPROVAL OF GRADUATE STUDENT INSTRUCTOR APPOINTMENTS

(Per Systemwide Senate Regulation, SR 750 and per APM 410 and CAPM 700.411, there are CEP criteria for approval of graduate student instructor appointments):

  1. GSI applications must explain how GSIs are properly prepared to teach their course.  GSIs who have completed departmental or TLC training will be at a competitive advantage.[1]
    1. GSIs for courses that require teaching assistants must have advanced to candidacy and must have served as a course instructor before.
    2. Enrollment in a GSI-taught course is limited to 120.
  2. GSIs must not have academic integrity actions from the university on their record.
  3. A faculty mentor may not oversee more than two GSIs in a term unless the mentor is compensated or the service is recognized. 
  4. A mentor must have taught the course in question or one in a related area in the last three years. This is to ensure that the mentor is familiar with how the course should be taught. Otherwise, they must be actively committed to co-developing the curricular plan and state this commitment and planned mentoring activities in a letter to CCI.

Additionally, CEP affirms that no more than 25% of the 5-credit upper-division courses offered by a course-sponsoring agency over two consecutive academic years can be taught by GSIs. 

[1] From CEP’s August 2020 Correspondence: Based on guidance from campus administrators, at least one of the options available to students has to be a credit-bearing pedagogy course, or else the training is considered part of the GSI workload (effective Fall 2022). 

Departments have broad discretion about how their pedagogy courses are designed. A single course can be used to train both GSIs and teaching assistants.

WAIVERS OF CRITERIA

Departments still have the ability to petition these criteria to CCI.  Should any of these criteria not be met a letter requesting a waiver of criteria from the department chair or faculty mentor is required. The letter should explain how the GSI will be supported and a describe mitigation plan should issues arise.

GSI FACULTY OVERSIGHT AND MENTORING AGREEMENT

GSI requests must identify the faculty mentor who will provide oversight and mentoring to the GSI. The request must have correspondence attached from the faculty mentor confirming they have read, understand and agree to the Faculty Oversight and Mentoring Agreement. The faculty mentor must commit to mentoring the graduate student during their teaching assignment in accordance with the Faculty Mentor Agreement.

CCI ONLINE FORM AND APPROVAL PROCESS FOR UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

The GSI Request Form for undergraduate courses is submitted using the CARS Portal.

CCI uses an online form to capture approvals in an online workflow that sends form submissions to authorizers within the departments and divisions before requests reach CCI for review. This allows departments to submit their requests in the online form without first having to collect the required authorizations from the Department Chair, Divisional Dean, and Graduate Divisional Dean. The following resources provide detailed instructions for how to use the online workflow:

The online workflow will send each request to the appropriate departmental, and then divisional, authorizer for review and approval. The workflow will also provide an opportunity for Divisional Coordinators to review each request before it reaches the Divisional Dean for authorization.

CCI REVIEW OF GSI TEACHING REQUESTS FOR UNDERGRADUATE COURSES

Once all authorizations are captured in the online workflow, CCI will review each teaching request and provide a final decision via email to the following individuals:

  • Requester
  • Course Sponsoring Unit Head
  • Faculty Mentor

This email notification will serve as CCI’s official notification of the decision.

Generally, CCI will review a GSI teaching request and return a response within 2-3 weeks. If you have a time-sensitive request, please follow up a form submission with an email to the CCI Analyst at cci@ucsc.edu, describing the urgency of the request, and CCI will work to expedite a response to the department.

CCI DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING REQUESTS

The CCI deadline for submission of requests is the end of the 4th week of the quarter prior to the quarter in which the course is to be taught, for example, the 4th week of spring quarter for a course to be offered in fall.

For Summer Session, the deadline is the end of January.

For requests eligible for blanket approval, submission deadlines are set by the divisions. Please consult the divisional deadlines for submitting blanket approval requests. The criteria for such requests are outlined below.

Course-sponsoring units should bear in mind that CCI approval is not automatic. It is strongly suggested sponsoring units have an alternate plan in mind for mounting the relevant course if needed.

BLANKET APPROVAL

Blanket approval for the GSI teaching assignment is provided by CCI in the following cases (if GSI does not meet all GSI criteria above, blanket approval should not be selected):

For Lower Division Courses

If all CCI criteria for either Associate In or Teaching Fellow have been met, CCI gives blanket approval, and it is the responsibility of the divisional dean and the department to ensure that all the criteria are met.

For Upper Division Courses

If CCI has previously approved this student to teach the upper-division course in question (not a different course) and all 5 CEP criteria have been met, CCI gives blanket approval, and it is the responsibility of the divisional dean and the department to ensure that the five criteria are met.

GSI teaching requests that meet the criteria for CCI blanket approval will still go through the new workflow to capture the approval of the department chairs and divisional deans.

Committee on Courses of Instruction Policy on the Appointment and Use of Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTAs)

“Undergraduate Teaching Assistant” (UTA) refers to an undergraduate student appointed in the capacity of a Teaching Assistant. The Committee on Courses of Instruction (CCI) approves the appropriateness of instructors for classes (SCB 13.17.4), including appointment of UTAs. Prior to requesting that an undergraduate be hired as an UTA (Teaching Assistant, title code 2311), departments must ensure that there are no qualified graduate students available for the position. Questions associated with the process by which to determine that no qualified graduate students are available can be directed to the Division of Graduate Studies. 

UTAs should have demonstrated preparedness to serve, either by having achieved a grade of A in the course for which they will TA or in subsequent courses in a sequence, or by other evidence of academic preparedness, which should be explained in the appointment request. UTAs should complete the course on teaching ethics for TAs currently in use on the campus. TAs are expected to complete the course as part of their compensated time.

UTA Requests should be submitted not less than 1 week before the quarter starts. If late requests are needed, please email the CCI Analyst.

[SB 750.E: No student may serve as a reader or assistant in a course in which the student is enrolled]. Policy approved by CEP on April 7, 2011 and updated on October 2014. Last revised by the Committee on Courses of Instruction on May 6, 2024