The Department of Computer Science has implemented a new compensation policy for undergraduate teaching assistants in response to a University-wide review of undergraduate student employment practices, said Donald Schanck, assistant vice president and University controller.
The changes have proved controversial among students and faculty in the department.
Undergraduate TAs, who previously received stipends for a semester of work, will be required to report and be paid for every hour they work, according to Thomas Doeppner, associate professor and vice chair of the computer science department.
Under the new policy, undergraduate TAs will be able to work no more than an average of nine to 10 hours per week. While some courses have only required TAs to work for an average of five hours, others have required a time commitment of up to 20 hours per week, Doeppner said.
"We conduct internal reviews periodically in different areas of the University just to ensure that our current practices are in compliance with the law," Schanck said.
The Office of Internal Audit Services, the Human Resources Department, the Student Employment Office and the Controller's Office participated, he said.
"In this case with the situation in computer science, we just found that these students, looking at the jobs and responsibilities that they had, the work fell more towards employment as opposed to an award to the student or work that they were pursuing sort of on their own," he said.
The CS department relies heavily on TAs, Doeppner said, and is looking for ways to maintain the critical role TAs play in CS courses while ensuring they are paid "fairly and legally."
"We have no choice but to comply with it," he added.
Doeppner said he recently had discussions with Dean of the College Katherine Bergeron regarding the possibility of giving TAs a half-course credit as an acknowledgement of their time commitment and dedication.
Professor of Computer Science Andy van Dam, who founded the CS undergraduate teaching assistant program when he came to Brown in 1965, has been upset by this change.
"We're not happy about it, and the students are certainly not happy about it," he said.
Though the new policy requires hourly compensation, van Dam said none of the TAs were enthusiastic about the prospect of earning more money.
"TAs have historically willingly accepted a flat stipend throughout the semester for their work, viewing the rewards of shaping course development and impacting students' learning processes as more important than monetary compensation," wrote Stephen Poletto '12, Kelly Newton '11 and Nabeel Gillani '12, head TAs for CSCI 0150: "Introduction to Object-Oriented Programming and Computer Science," in a statement to The Herald. "Instituting a policy that requires TAs to be paid hourly directly impacts the amount, and quality, of work that TAs can do, and will have an adverse effect on the way students learn in computer science classes at Brown."
Administrative officials had been discussing this potential change since last spring, but the department was notified four weeks ago that the policy would go into effect immediately, van Dam said. The first reporting period affected by this change was the first half of October, he added.
Due to the involvement of numerous offices on campus in this matter, the policy has taken time to go into effect, Schanck said.
"You just want to make sure everybody's on the same track, we all understand what's going on and that we have the situation correct," he said.
But Doeppner and van Dam said the University administration told the computer science department that the federal government had mandated the change. Schanck said they were misinformed.
"There was no review by a federal agency in this. This was all part of the University's normal course of business," he said.
Doeppner and van Dam recently held a meeting on this issue with about 60 to 70 TAs, and "every single last question was, ‘How can we get around this? How can we keep what we have? How do we avoid this?' " van Dam said. Calling the program "a crown jewel," he said that many alums who served as TAs during their time at Brown see the change as a "terrible idea."
"It's probably a kind of social engineering trying to prevent exploitation," van Dam said, "but my personal opinion is, as much as I'm in favor of many aspects of social engineering, that you get unintended consequences."
Van Dam said the department does not have the budget to pay for the 15 to 20 hours TAs work each week. Computations done by the department revealed that supporting such a system would require an additional $50,000 to $100,000, he said.
Van Dam has implemented a few changes this semester to address this problem. The TAs in charge of his courses, CSCI 0150 and CSCI 1230: "Introduction to Computer Graphics," receive an hourly pay for 10 hours a week, which over the course of the semester, will approximately total the previously earned semester stipend. In addition, they are enrolled in an independent study program, or what van Dam calls a practicum, which grants them more hours to serve as teaching assistants. Similar to the way in which a future half-course credit may supplement paid hours, van Dam's TAs currently receive both pay and course credit.
Despite these solutions, van Dam said he is worried that the new policy will not allow TAs to be as influential as they have been in the past. He described the TA system as "self-perpetuating."
"Kids become TAs because they were helped so much by TAs when they were taking the course, and they want to give that back," he said. "I know my lectures are a minor component of what makes my course successful. It's really the TA system, and I'm proud of that."
