The Graduate and Professional Student Council voted unanimously Wednesday to support a resolution that would require graduate assistants in SIUC’s core curriculum to attend orientation workshops before entering the classroom.

The resolution, presented to the council by Ann-Janine Morey, director of the core curriculum at SIUC, would require teaching assistants in the core program to attend workshops offered by the graduate school on sexual harassment, multiculturalism in the classroom, research misconduct and information literacy.

Under the resolution, departments that wish to exempt their core curriculum TAs from attending those workshops would have to submit materials to the graduate school demonstrating that the assistant received comparable training by the department.

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The Undergraduate Education Policy Committee of the Faculty Senate will review the resolution Aug. 17, before it is considered by the senate as a whole. Morey said the resolution will become University policy if it is passed by the Faculty Senate.

Harry Daniels, associate dean of the graduate school, pointed out to the council that the school has offered TA training since 1988, and all departments on campus have been strongly encouraged to urge their graduate assistants to attend these workshops.

He also pointed out that the four workshops that would be required by the resolution are not the only workshops offered by the school.

Daniels addressed the council on the issue of pay. Some members of the council expressed concern because the period during which graduate students are under contract does not always include the time graduate students would be required to attend the workshops under the resolution.

Daniels told the council that the contract period was arbitrarily decided on by the SIU Board of Trustees, and included a period between the end of finals week and Dec. 31, for which TAs are paid and are not required to work.

Monty Peerbhai, a graduate student in sociology from Arlington Heights, told Daniels he is happy with the contract.

I am a teaching assistant, he said. And I would like to say that the contract does not need to be

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see GPSC, page 6