We are formally proposing the addition of an ‘Undergraduate Teaching Assistant’ for lower division Computer Science classes. Our reasoning includes, but is not limited to the following well-established facts:

1. As the Computer Science department accepts 300 more incoming freshman for the 2016-2017 school year, the strain on Graduate students will become more exacerbated than ever. Paid or unpaid Undergraduate TA’s, who are passionate about computer science and education empowerment, will help take off such a considerable pressure from the shoulders of graduate students.

2. Students taking the classes will have greater access to more personalized learning and attention. Undergrads have more recently taken the classes they will be teaching and will be able to discern what challenges are faced by students in understanding course content.

3. Many high profile public universities such as UC Berkeley, University of Michigan, and UC San Diego have already established programs of such equivalence.

4. Just like any profession, teaching is one that is perfected with practice. For those students interested in academia, this would be a great opportunity to learn from esteemed professors and experienced TA’s.

5. An undergraduate TA program will help boost the undergraduate TAs’ experiences with teaching which will help with their careers in the industry. Companies are more likely to recruit such students.

We are open to structuring the program in any way that the department sees fit. Such a proposal is purely focused on the empowerment of tomorrow’s brightest engineers and the development of educators that make the very bedrock of society itself. We would love to have the opportunity to meet and discuss the proposal in greater detail.

Best,
Board Officers of Association of Computing Machinery