Situation
Professor Oliver York is a nationally known scholar in his area and attracts many graduate students to the department in the hopes that they may work for him. Each year, Professor York travels exten-sively in the period between Thanksgiving and winter break for research purposes. In order to accomplish this, he assigns his graduate students to the classes “just to keep the students enter-tained” and often gives them library projects to work on during this period. He rewards his graduate students with perks that include sharing a room at the annual ASA meetings which is paid for with departmental funds.
Questions
- Is it ethical to cover classes in such a manner? Are graduate students in a position to refuse such requests from faculty?
- Are the perks that Professor York uses adequate compensation and are they appropriate?
- What is the responsibility of Professor York’s colleagues to call attention to these practices? If they have a responsibility to proceed, how could this be done?
- What if these graduate students were TAs in his course? Would that make any difference?
Discussion
Classroom instruction at most institutions of higher education has no “substitute teaching corps” on which to draw. Instructors are often expected to “swap” classroom teaching when illness, profess-sional obligations, or family obligations remove them from the classroom. However, this is an emergency remedy, and should never become a routine event. Scheduling a “mini vacation” in the middle of an academic term is an unethical use of this system and signals intent to break the contracted teaching assignment.
The scenario also raises the issue of “fair compensation” to graduate students. A “room at the inn” that is paid for out of department funds, out of grants or even out of private funds is not adequate compensation. The faculty member should clarify from the outset the need for a replacement instructor with the department chair; if a replacement is approved for this scenario (which is unlikely) then the rate of payment should be set by department guidelines. In some limited instances, a graduate student might take a course at “no pay” when it is an opportunity for professional experience or advancement that he or she might not otherwise have. Likewise, faculty may “swap” classes with a graduate instructor to cover for personal time away from teaching assignments, if the swap is agreed to as fair by both instructors.
It is irrelevant whether these graduate students are in TA roles. This is a case of inadequate training (5a) or inappropriate delegation (5b). If Professor York develops a strategy for the graduate students to take over these classes and outlines educational objectives for both the undergraduate and graduate students, then this approach may be appropriate. However, the issue of frequency remains and there does not appear to be any attempt to reschedule contact hours with students. In addition, the use of resources of whatever kind, to compensate graduate students raises issues of appropriateness and boundaries.
