Carlos A. Lopez, the president of the Graduate Student Council, says he doesn't want to see each department setting its own policies.
"I think the grad students would like to have some centralization to the administration of policies of teaching fellow training," Lopez says.
The problem with having departments do their training individually, Lopez says, is that grad students in small departments with no undergraduate teaching courses receive no training. One such example, he says, is the department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies.
Wilkinson, and Buell, say they are adopting a wait-and-see attitude, trusting the departments to come up with adequate improvements. Wilkinson says the requirement may be strengthened, if necessary.
Evangelista, the undergraduate council member, agrees.
"It's good that now the department has the willingness to look at the way they teach students," Evangelista says, "but I hope the department programs are not intended just for show."
"If the quality is not improved then it is obvious that the department is not taking the idea of the teaching fellow evaluations seriously," he says.