E-Hotline Opened For TF Concerns

Teaching fellow performance has joined eating concerns, sexual health questions, and peer support networks in the realm of Harvard student hotlines.

A new e-mail domain allowing student feedback on TF performance went live at 11:59 last night, after being arranged and approved by the Undergraduate Council (UC). Students who want to relay concerns—or compliments—about particular TFs can now send an e-mail to TF@hcs.harvard.edu and have their comments addressed confidentially and promptly, according to a bill unanimously passed by the UC yesterday.

Crucial to the implementation of “The Teaching Hotline Act” will be the Undergraduate Teaching Board—a group of four UC-appointed undergraduates who have been charged with synthesizing the student feedback received at the hotline address and preparing it for presentation to the appropriate TF or course professor.

The members of the teaching board will not be allowed to share the identity of students who use the service with anyone, according to a UC position paper on the subject, “unless called upon to do so by the Undergraduate Council.”

After sending an e-mail to the hotline, students will receive a response confirming their submission and providing further information about the hotline.

Within 48 hours of an e-mail, the teaching board will be in touch with students, informing them of the strategy that will be employed in addressing the reported issue. And by the two-week mark, students will again be contacted, this time with information on the progress made towards resolving the targeted concern.

For recently inaugurated UC leaders Ryan A. Petersen ’08 and Matthew L. Sundquist ’09, the hotline represents early progress on a key campaign promise—teaching reform.

According to Petersen, the goal of effecting pedagogical improvement was particularly well-received in his door-to-door campaign visits.

And indeed, for their part, students do appear to recognize the need for the new program.

Timothy D. Turner ’09—who said he had taken several “TF-heavy” courses during his three semesters at

Harvard, including Social Analysis 10, Economics 1010a, and a Science B Core—said the general quality of instruction in those courses needed improvement.

“I only had one really good TF,” said Turner. “The rest range from okay to poor.”

“I’ve known other people who’ve even had worse experiences than I’ve had,” Turner later said. “I think that’s something the administration should address.”

Cooperation between the administration and students is something that both Petersen and Sundquist hope to see emerge as a result of the hotline program.

“The message it sends is very good,” Sunquist said of the hotline. “It shows the administration [they] need to meet us halfway and if [they] don’t we’re going to do everything in our power to make sure that undergrads are being prioritized at this school.”

The UC’s position paper said that the hotline is an improvement over current ways students can provide feedback about their TFs—as compared to the CUE evaluations, which occur at a fixed date and are only processed after the semester is over.

“Every year there are 30 TFs who score below a 3 in the CUE guide and are asked to get training,” Petersen said. “If we can identify those 30 over the course of the semester, then this program will have been a complete success.”

—Staff writer Christian B. Flow can be reached at cflow@fas.harvard.edu.