Information for all New Teaching Assistants
Congratulations on receiving a Rensselaer Teaching
Assistantship! We look forward to you joining our campus and
community, and wish you every success in your growth as a
scholar and educator. Because we want you to gain the most from
your experience here, we require you to attend our TA Training
Program and Graduate Student Orientation in August. Institute
and department activities will be scheduled from 8/19 though
8/28; please save these dates.
The program provides you with training that will help you
understand the details and the overriding importance of your
role as a teaching assistant and graduate student. It also
affords us an opportunity to welcome you and introduce you to
the people and places of Rensselaer and the surrounding
area.
Throughout the week, you will meet faculty members, graduate
assistants, professional staff, and administrators who together
facilitate all aspects of the program and make up the core
instructional staff for the teaching skill development and
problem-solving sessions. Because we also wish to convey the
importance of knowing the “everyday” campus procedures and
policies, we include discussions on academic guidelines, health
services, academic computing, library usage, student records
issues, and environmental health and safety. Other topics focus
on social aspects of campus life, and include formal
discussions on campus diversity, sexual harassment awareness,
counseling, and advising.
The training program and orientation, and accompanying
activities, enlighten and enliven your introduction to
Rensselaer, and help to make the campus and vicinity a safer,
healthier, better informed environment in which to live, work,
and study. All new teaching assistants must attend regardless
of prior teaching experience or previous attendance at
Rensselaer. If you are unable to attend we may, regrettably,
need to reassign your teaching assistantship.
Orientation Inquiries/Questions: For
further information about the program, Request Information, or
contact, Dennis Gornic, Associate Dean, (518) 276-6488,
gornid@rpi.edu.
