Student Titles Workshop Calculating Percentages for Summer TA Appointments

Not all TAships are created equal… In fall, winter and spring quarters, the maximum workload hours for a 50% position is 220 hours. (Article 31, Section A.1.a.) In summer, the maximum workload hours for a 50% position is 120 hours. (Article 24, Section A.1.)

Why? In the academic year, all the quarters are of equal length (i.e., 10 weeks). In summer, the term has sessions of differing lengths. The contract uses 120 hours as a baseline for a 6 week session.

What if the required duties take more than 120 hours to complete? The instructor (or other authorized person) can do one of two things: Reduce the duties so that they fit within the 120 hours, or, Determine the number of hours needed to complete the required duties and recalculate the percentage of employment. By “other authorized person” I mean the Dept Chair, Faculty Coordinator, Faculty Supervisor, or Instructor of Record.

How? List all the TA duties related to the summer version of the course. Quantify each task in terms of the number of minutes/hours needed to complete the task for X number of students. Add the total number of hours. Divide the total number of hours by 240 and multiply by 100. (Note: 240 is the total possible workload hours at 100% employment.) A source for the TA duties can be Description of Duties form the instructor provided the TA, or, ask the faculty member directly. Also, I recommend this exercise if a TA comes to you complaining they are working more than noted workload hours and it’s not possible to reduce the duties.

Example Duty Calculation Hours Attend lectures 1.25 hrs/lecture * 4/wk * 6 wks 30 Lead discussion section 1.33 hrs/wk * 3 sections * 6 wks 24 Section preparation 2 hrs/wk * 6 wks 12 Office hours Review session: midterms 2 hrs/exam * 2 exams 4 Review session: final 2 hrs 2 Midterm grading (25 students) 20 hrs/exam * 2 exams 40 Final grading (25 students) 40 hrs Office hrs by appointment 10 hrs 10 TOTAL HOURS 174 174/240 * 100 72.5% This is a real example taken from an upper-division science course.