Teaching assistants, such as Brian Chase, balance time between studies and the working responsibilities of a teacher.

Philosophy assistant professor Jennifer Lackey said without Chase, a philosophy graduate student, the teaching load of a professor would be impossible to complete. Lackey teaches multiple 100-level sections, 300 and 400-level courses, graduate classes and conducts research.

“There are some institutions where professors have three classes and no teaching assistants,” Lackey said.

“There isn’t any way NIU could expect the kind of research that it does from its faculty members.”

Chase does all of the grading in Lackey’s PHIL 101 class. Philosophy department teaching assistants are almost exclusively responsible for 100-level grading, Lackey said.

“They’re perfectly competent to grade 101 papers, but then faculty members will do most of the upper-level grading and certainly all of the graduate,” Lackey said.

100-level grading TA-exclusive

The course’s organization relies on Chase. He makes sure all 114 students are in assigned seats and checks in and grades each student’s reading assignments for every class period.

Desiree Arnold, a junior technical design theater major, is in section three of PHIL 101.

“With so many students, everyone wants to talk to the professor, but since we have the assistant, you can go to him with all the little problems,” Arnold said. “A lot of times she will redirect you to the teaching assistant even if you wanted to ask her about it.”

Organization a key to success

Kristen Knapp, a second year master’s student of anthropology, credits her success to her daily planner.

“I make sure I’m prioritizing everything I have to do,” Knapp said. “I have to make sure my students are included in that as my work and everything else I have to get done.”

Knapp assists professor Christopher Roth in ANTH 230. In her fifth assistantship, she has never experienced difficulty from students. Knapp’s presence makes a great difference, Roth said.

“With such a large class, not everything comes right to my desk,” Roth said.

Weekly meetings vary proportionately to the week’s schedule. Knapp feels the experience will better her as a professor.

“The bulk of my work in this class is being an assistant to the students,” Knapp said. “Sometimes students are intimidated by the professor, so they want to come to you and explain stuff to you, because they feel you’re closer to their level. You’re kind of bridging the gap between students and professors.”

NIU requires all teaching assistants to be graduate students and hold a grade point average of 2.5 or better. Individual academic areas vary in additional requirements.