Despite UNM's No. 14 ranking in the Princeton Review for having too many upper-level classes taught by teaching assistants, Teresita Aguilar says it is a rare occurrence.
Aguilar is the dean of the Graduate Studies Office and said she hadn't heard of the rankings.
"In my experience, I mostly have professors," senior Terra King said. "But occasionally in lower-division classes I have TAs."
Michael Bell can't remember having a teaching assistant for his upper-level history classes.
Freshman Shawna Donaldson said in her introductory psychology class of more than 900 students, TAs assist the professor, but do not teach the class.
The annual review came out in July. It is based on student opinion and ranks 357 schools nationwide. According to its Web site, it monitors 2,000 colleges each year and reviews about 300 surveys filled out by undergraduate students at each school.
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Reed Dasenbrock, dean of arts and sciences, said the ranking was an accurate measure of student perception, but not of reality.
"It's surely not accurate, because it's simply asking students their opinion," Dasenbrock said.
He said many of the best universities in the country rely on graduate students to teach. At UNM he said they teach mainly lower-level classes, but some departments do rely on them for upper-level courses.
Donaldson said she could see a problem with that because students are paying for a good education and should be able to learn from a professor with a doctorate degree.
"We're paying a lot to go here, and we have to count on teachers for our degree," she said.
Aguilar said there are about 1,200 TAs at the University.
Susan Deese-Roberts, director of the Teaching Assistant Resource Center, said there are quite a few TAs trained through the center who teach lower-division classes.
"In my experience, many
departments restrict TAs to teaching lower-level courses," Desse-Roberts said.
Lisa Ragsdale, a TA for an English 101 section, said there are 40 to 50 TAs in the English Department teaching lower-level courses.
"There is no way a TA would be able to or should be able to teach an upper-level class," she said. "As far as English 101 and 102 go, they are well prepared."
Aguilar said most TAs teach in the College of Arts and Sciences, because they offer the most introductory classes.
TAs are paid through state money because their classes generate class credit for students.
The minimum salary for a TA is $11,000 for nine months.
Aguilar said that works out to around $2,500 to $3,000 a course.
They also receive paid tuition up to six hours and are eligible for health insurance coverage.
