As a first (and last) year graduate student, I had the pleasure of becoming a teaching assistant for the College of Architecture. With being a first-time teaching assistant, I was required to take HUM 601 – Teaching Assistant Seminar: Introduction to the U.S. Higher Education Classroom. Now, I understood the purpose of taking it in order to learn what I would need to be a TA, but I wasn’t expecting to learn so many things about Illinois Institute of Technology that I never learned in my five years of undergraduate study.
Tracey McGee, Teaching Professor and Director for the Lewis College of Science and Letters, is one of the best professors I have ever had the pleasure of meeting. Not only is she excellent at teaching and maintaining the attention of her students, but you can really tell that she cares about each and every student. Her office hours were both before and after the lecture course, allowing students to reach out to her immediately regarding their personal experiences or concerns related to school (both as a teaching assistant and a regular student). I found her advice and presence so welcoming and soothing that I found myself hanging out with her during her office hours simply for the company. McGee has proven time and again that her care towards students isn’t just a semesterly thing, but it carries through the rest of the students’ lives. She encourages everyone in her class to come to her with questions or concerns regardless of if we are still in her class. In the times that I brought genuine concerns regarding things I have seen in my past courses, she has always volunteered to speak with the dean of the college or professor directly regarding concerns to protect me and other students from being targeted in any sense. Even when she encouraged us to confront professors ourselves, she provided herself as a scapegoat. “Tell your professor that HUM 601 taught you this,” McGee would say every class. We were also encouraged to CC or BCC her on emails if necessary so we could always feel like we had someone in our corner. The support and encouragement I received from professor McGee throughout the semester taught me the importance of being able to stand up for myself and others without fear of repercussions.
McGee isn’t the only good thing about the course, though I believe that it wouldn’t be the same without her. The content of the course was just as interesting and engaging as our professor. The course covers both teaching assistant responsibilities and every resource on campus available to all students (more importantly, for free!). It’s clear that some things were mainly to inform the new graduate students on campus, but some of these resources were new to me, a student who has now been an Illinois Tech student for over five years. Library resources (mostly the available in-person rentables), for example, were never fully explained to me, as I mostly was only informed of the College of Architecture Graham Resource Center’s resources. This was also the only time that I was explained the processes that go into academic dishonesty, something that I’ve witnessed all my life without fully understanding if consequences were met or not (throwback to the plagiarism scandal that all architecture students knew about in my third year of undergrad). All these resources have always been available to me, and I wasn’t even TOLD about them. I was diligent in my learning of on-campus resources, attending every lecture and meeting in First Year Experience, and somehow I still was learning new things.
There were of course some reasons I personally didn’t utilize certain resources. I grew up in a very competitive educational environment where failure wasn’t an option and asking for help was a sign of weakness (this could’ve been just in my head, though). I spent my entire high school career as the resource provider, not the person who needed resources. Of course, this was a very silly mindset. Everyone deserves to ask for help when they need it, and they should never feel lesser for doing it. The most important reminder came after every lecture: not utilizing these resources is just a waste of money. We already pay for them to be available, so why shouldn’t we use them?
HUM 601 is THE course to take as a student. While it’s only available to teaching assistants (so mostly graduate students as per the rules regarding who can and cannot TA), I encourage you to look into ALL of the various resources available to you on campus. I will also emphasize reading ALL of your syllabi, as the majority of resources are listed on them.