Administrators have long acknowledged that many teaching fellows are not doing an adequate job of instructing undergraduates.

This year, however, students and administrators have begun to address the issue. The Faculty Council has reformed the guidelines for hiring TFs, and the Undergraduate Council suggested new rules for TF training and evaluation.

Dean for Undergraduate Education Lawrence Buell jumped into the fray last month and presented a proposal to improve training for teaching fellows whose native language is not English.

"There have long been student concerns in this area, and we felt it was important that we address them," said Assistant Dean for Undergraduate Education Jeffrey Wolcowitz.

But faculty members have been restrained in expressing support for the proposal. There's a reason--any attempt to impose quality control on TFs inspires professor's fears that the administration may be trying to chip away at faculty rights.

The specifics of Buell's proposals excited those worries. The dean sought to establish a system in which all non-native English speakers would be testedfor English skills and provided with trainingbefore they can work as TFs within the Faculty ofArts and Sciences.

"There was a sense that centralized testingwould be a large bureaucratic hurdle," Wolcowitzsaid of the Faculty Council's reaction to theproposal. "They thought it was important that wenot be implying that individual faculty membersaren't responsible for the training and selectionof their teaching staff or that departmentsaren't.

Possible Compromise

In the long run, the only plan that could winthe support of the faculty may take the form of acompromise which leaves enforcing standards forteaching fellows up to the individual departments.

But, it is unclear whether such a compromisewould definitively set a bottom line standard onTF's English skills.

Dean of the Faculty Jeremy R. Knowles said inan interview yesterday that the testing ofpotential TFs must be flexible enough toaccommodate the needs of different departments.

"I am less concerned about what the precisemechanisms are than that mechanisms exist toguarantee the quality of the classroom experiencefor undergraduates," Knowles said.

A compromise may already be on the way. A newversion of Buell's proposal offers the departmentsmuch more latitude in the testing and training oftheir teaching fellows.

"We may not have to go through a testingprogram for people who have been here for awhile," Wolcowitz said.

He added that if graduate students have workedclosely with a professor, a formal test might notbe necessary to identify those who need morelanguage training.

Wolcowitz said the revamped proposal called forgraduate students to be screened before they couldassume teaching responsibilities.