Elena Ramos transferred from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign to avoid being taught by graduate assistants in charge of instructing undergraduate classes.

The senior biological science student said she questioned the organizational skills of the graduate assistants who taught labs at U of I. She thought the size of the campus made it difficult for her to feel comfortable and wanted.

She transferred to Eastern because she liked the idea of establishing personal relationships with professors and the more intimate atmosphere of the campus.

Ramos fears those qualities at the Eastern could change soon.

“I sincerely believe you have not thought about the impact (this program) has on your students,” Ramos said to Robert Augustine, dean of the graduate school.

Ramos attended Tuesday’s Faculty Senate meeting in Booth Library where Augustine spoke in front of the senate about graduate assistants teaching undergraduate classes.

Augustine composed a report on the graduate assistant teaching program earlier in the year and discussed the results of the report with the senate.

Augustine said there have been seven programs for the last 30 years that allow graduate assistants to teach undergraduate classes.

“We’ve been employing this method for a long period of time,” Augustine said.

These programs implement a rigorous training, orientation and mentoring program, he said. Faculty members are required oversee graduate assistants who are teaching classes, he added.

The biology department instituted a program that allows graduate assistants to teach Biological Principles and Issues this semester.

The English department started a similar program in the fall of 2005, which allows graduate assistants to teach English Composition and Language as well as English Composition and Literature.

Augustine said graduate assistants only teach non-major courses within departments who use the graduate assistant teaching program.

Augustine oversees quality control with graduate assistants teaching undergraduate classes to make sure students are receiving a quality education from those classes.

Audience members expressed concern with Eastern trying to implement this program in the majority of departments in the future.

Perspective students interested in Eastern for undergraduate studies could shy away from attending the university if they see more graduate assistants teaching non-major courses, which are typically taken to fulfill the general education requirement, said Gary Fritz, a biology professor.

“Do I think we will adopt this in a more broader sense?” Augustine said. “No, I don’t.”

Assistant biology professor James Novak disagreed with Fritz, saying graduate assistants teaching non-major classes does not hurt the student because the class does not pertain to their major.

Biology professor Eric Bollinger sided with Fritz.

“(This) is not the direction Eastern should go because it isn’t Eastern’s niche,” Bollinger said.

The senate discussed potentially making the graduate assistant teaching program a topic of discussion for the spring faculty forum and possibly creating a fall faculty forum to discuss the topic earlier.

Other business items included:

-A presentation on the new Academic Lifetime Learning program, aimed to offer non-credit short programs for the retired community. ALL is looking for faculty interested in teaching those courses.

-The senate is also looking for a third student to represent the student body at senate meetings.

-Blair Lord, provost and vice president for academic affairs, said during the provost’s report the 10-day enrollment period ended Friday and the official numbers should be released soon. He added the unofficial enrollment numbers are slightly lower than last year’s total of 12,317.