For students in departmental humanities classes, the phrase "teaching fellow" often conjures up a polished third-year graduate student who facilitates student discussions and divines student grades with the aid of years of related study under his belt.

For students in science classes, however, the image evoked is rather different. Not only is section more often than not an autocratic session of deciphering and demystifying course materials, but section leaders are frequently mere undergraduates who took the course the previous fall.

In some departments, like chemistry, teaching staffs for courses include just a smattering of seasoned and scholarly upperclassmen.

In other fields, particularly computer science, a first-year student's prime purveyor of academic wisdom and indelible transcript markings is more often than not some clever sophomore freshly consigned to the Quad.

Undergraduates teaching their peers raises a number of questions and possible ethical dilemmas, not the least of which is "Should I be paying $35,000 a year to be taught by my blockmate?"

Despite the possible problems with undergraduate Teaching Fellows (TF), a shortage of graduate students makes them necessary in some departments. Many say, however, that undergraduate TFs are not only a necessity, but are welcome additions to teaching staffs.

Not Enough To Go Around

The use of undergraduate TFs to teach introductory math and science courses arose initially out of the shortage of graduate students to fill all the necessary positions.

"We normally place the grad students in the higher-level courses, such as organic and Chem 10," says Senior Lecturer James E. Davis, who teaches Chemistry 5: "Introduction to Principles of Chemistry," "but we usually run out of grad students before filling all the slots in Chem 5."

Davis says graduate students in the Chemistry Department are typically given priority for teaching jobs, but there simply aren't enough of them to fill every post available.

This scarcity of teaching fellows is especially noticeable in departments that are growing rapidly. In computer science, where the number of concentrators has recently ballooned to 250, the teaching staffs of most introductory courses are composed entirely of undergraduates.

"The situation arose out of necessity," says Associate Professor of Computer Science Steven J. Gortler, the department's director of undergraduate studies.

With roughly 30 or 40 graduate computer science students, "all the positions simply can't be filled with the graduate student population here," he says.

"Had there been lots of graduate students I think a more traditional setup might have occurred," he adds.

Understanding Teachers