The Department has a number of policies with respect to teaching assistants and adjuncts. Please take a few moments to familiarize yourself with these guidelines. While we don't mean to ‘rule’ you to death, in a department of our size it is necessary to have a few policies in place to make all of our lives a little easier.
It is assumed that all teaching assistants will get a USF e-mail account and check it regularly. This will be our link to you for announcements and other information. By the end of the first week of classes, you should provide Sarina with your e-mail address. While we realize that you may prefer to use other accounts, please use your USF e-mail account. Your USF e-mail account may be accessed through the on-line student directory and your students (as well as faculty members who may need to contact you) will assume that you are checking this account.
At USF, the course syllabi is viewed as a contract between you and your students. For this reason, it is important that you carefully consider prior to the start of the semester exactly what your classroom policies are. Do you wish to require attendance? If so, what penalties will be assessed? What is your late policy for assignements? What happens if a student does not show up for an exam? Once course requirements are established, anticipate strong negative reactions if you add or otherwise change the grading structure. There are University Requirements for your syllabus. If you need examples to follow, models will be provided for you.
While not yet required, please consider adding the following statement to your syllabus:
Attendance for examinations is mandatory. No make-up exams will be given except in the most extenuating of circumstances. If you are sick, a note signed by the physician indicating that you were physically unable to attend class is necessary in order to postpone the exam. A receipt from the infirmary is not a valid excuse. Any sort of excuse must be documented in some manner (prayer cards, tow truck receipts, subpoenas, etc.). You must contact the instructor prior to the exam if circumstances warrant that you cannot attend. If you do not, you will be given a zero on the exam.
The instructor reserves the right to give a different exam to students requiring a make-up.
If you do not include a statement similar to the one above, anticipate being overwhelmed with various excuses/illnesses/ailments on your exam date.
If a student must miss an exam, please make every effort to proctor the missed exam yourself. If this is impossible, the instructor and the student must make arrangements with Beverly to set up a day and time that is convenient for her to proctor the exam. Please, please, please, do not overwhelm our busy office staff with students needing to take a make-up. Imagine the difficulties if even 5 or 6 students show up at the same time and day, without prior arrangements, to take exams. Just finding an appropriate location to seat the students is difficult. If you can't proctor the exam yourself, at least be sensitive to the burden that is placed on the office staff to meet such requests.
The office maintains a cache of pens, pencils, notebooks, and other office supplies for your use. See Mary Ann or Barbara for accessing these materials. While we are not trying to nickel and dime you to death, please be aware the department absorbs the cost of these materials. If you take pencils to your class for student evaluations, be sure the student volunteer is instructed to collect them back. The cost of replacing these office supplies comes out of the same pot of money as graduate student (and faculty) travel.
Please direct questions to mthmaster@nosferatu.cas.usf.edu.
Last updated: 22-Aug-2007.
Copyright © 2002, USF Department of Mathematics.