FAQ for TA/CA/IAs
General Needs
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Please reach out to the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) at ctl@brandeis.edu.
Your supervising faculty member / instructor.
Depending on which school you belong to, you can reach out to:
Please reach out to your supervising faculty instructor and/or your academic/department administrator.
Please reach out to your supervising faculty instructor and/or your academic/department administrator, and your Departmental Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).
Please refer the student to Academic Services, who are available by phone at 781-736-3470 and by email at acserv@brandeis.edu. Students may schedule individual appointments with their academic advisor to address their concerns or connect to other resources. Additional resources can also be found on the Academic Support for Undergraduates page. If the student has provided you with an accommodation letter, you may also reach out to Student Accessibility Support at access@brandeis.edu.
Please contact the International Students and Scholars Office (ISSO).
Please speak with your instructor/faculty member.
University Prize Instructorships support advanced doctoral students to design and teach upper-division courses in their field of research. More information about the University Prize Instructorship can be found here, and please feel free to reach out to Alyssa Canelli (Assistant Dean of Academic Affairs, acanelli@brandeis.edu, 781-736-3413) with further questions.
Please refer to the CBA page maintained by Human Resources.
Please discuss with your supervising faculty member and your Departmental Director of Graduate Studies (DGS).
Please reach out to your supervising faculty member and/or Jessica Basile (Assistant Dean, Office of Graduate Affairs, basile@brandeis.edu, 781-736-3547). You can also reach out to the University Ombuds Office, who are confidential.
Please refer to the Student Accessibility Support website for more information about reasonable accommodations.
Students will typically submit their accommodation letter to the instructor of record. If a student shares a letter directly with you and you are not the instructor of record, you should notify the student that you will be sharing it with the instructor of record as well and then do so. If the instructor of record has a TA who will be involved in implementing those accommodations in some way, the instructor should ask the student's permission to share the accommodation letter with the TA or tell the student that they plan to share with the TA as long as there are no objections from the student (giving the student a way to withhold consent). It's helpful for students if the instructor tells the student the TA’s name at that point if it hasn't already been shared with the student (that way, if the student recognizes the TA and doesn't want to disclose accommodations to them as a peer, there's an opportunity for them to say something). Once the instructor is confident the student is comfortable with sharing their accommodations with the TA, the instructor can do that to whatever extent feels necessary: that might be sharing the whole letter or it might just be giving TAs who are proctoring exams a list of students with exam accommodations and what those are, depending on what the TA is doing for the class and how much they need to know about each student. Accommodations can be shared on a “need to know” basis, but since TAs are sometimes peers to the students in a class, an added layer of consent/opportunity to withhold consent is needed. TAs can be proactive in accessibility for the areas they oversee by asking the instructor if there are any disability accommodations they need to implement/be aware of, and reminding instructors that they should ask the student’s permission before sharing that information with the TA. Students generally understand the importance of this information being shared with TAs in order for their accommodations to be met, but deserve the opportunity to object due to the student peer nature of some TA relationships.
For classes you are not the instructor of record for but are implementing any accommodations for (e.g., extended time on exams), you should first direct questions about accommodations to the instructor but may also reach out to SAS directly at access@brandeis.edu, preferably with a CC to the instructor so they are in the loop. When emailing SAS directly you may include the student’s name as long as nobody is CC’d who doesn’t have a direct need to be aware of the student’s private disability status.
As the instructor of record it is your responsibility to implement accommodations as written in the letters students provide to you from SAS. If you have any questions about those accommodations you should reach out to access@brandeis.edu. If you are teaching other graduate students, you can reach out to Jaspreet Mahal (Accessibility Specialist for Graduate Students, jaspreet26@brandeis.edu directly. The Faculty page of the SAS website provides additional helpful information.
Please consult with the faculty instructor first if you are comfortable doing so; often these are simple oversights. If not, you can contact access@brandeis.edu or suggest that the student do so and SAS can assist.
Please reach out to Student Accessibility Support (SAS) at access@brandeis.edu.
For emergencies, call Public Safety at 781-736-3333. Please also fill out a CARE report about the student you are worried about. You can also reach out to the Brandeis Counseling Center (BCC) at 781-736-3730 or bcc@brandeis.edu (non-urgent email). The BCC will definitely talk about issues with a TA and they may be able to offer advice, but please note that they wouldn’t be able to share any information about the student.
Support at Brandeis also has a comprehensive listing of support resources. The Resilience: Framework and Campus Resources also has helpful information focused on resiliency.
Please reach out to the Office of Equal Opportunity at 781-736-4806 or oeo@brandeis.edu or using their secure EthicsPoint online reporting portal.
If students are unsafe because of their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, and/or medical history, please reach out to the Office of Equal Opportunity at 781-736-4806 or oeo@brandeis.edu or using their secure EthicsPoint online reporting portal.
If students are unsafe because of the physical environment, please start by reaching out to your faculty instructor if possible, and then your Departmental Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) if you are in GSAS, or Ravi Lakshmikanthan (Assistant Dean for Academic and Student Services, kanthan@brandeis.edu, 781-736-2753) if you are in Heller, or Linda Bui (Senior Associate Dean, ltbui@brandeis.edu, 781-736-4848) if you are in the Business School.
All students working in labs have safety training they must complete. If you feel like your safety training was insufficient, please reach out to Maryanna Aldrich (Manager, Division of Science Graduate Affairs Group, maldrich@brandeis.edu, 781-736-2352) and/or Andrew Finn (Manager of Environmental Health & Safety, afinn@brandeis.edu, 781-736-4262).
Please reach out to your Departmental Director of Graduate Studies (DGS) and Andrew Finn (Manager of Environmental Health & Safety, afinn@brandeis.edu, 781-736-4262).
If this is in a lab environment, please also reach out to Maryanna Aldrich (Manager, Division of Science Graduate Affairs Group, maldrich@brandeis.edu, 781-736-2352).
Please reach out to the Office of Equal Opportunity at 781-736-4806 or oeo@brandeis.edu or using their secure EthicsPoint online reporting portal.
Please reach out to the Office of Equal Opportunity at 781-736-4806 or oeo@brandeis.edu or using their secure EthicsPoint online reporting portal.
Jessica Basile (Assistant Dean, Office of Graduate Affairs, basile@brandeis.edu, 781-736-3547) and anyone in the Dean of Students’ Office can help, too.
You can also reach out to the University Ombuds Office, who are confidential (while the rest of the folks listed are responsible reporters).
Contact us with suggestions and questions about how the CTL can support your teaching at Brandeis!