Underutilized office hours: An apology to all teaching assistants everywhere
As a student currently on their seventh semester at SUNY Geneseo, I can say with much regret that I never went to a teaching assistant’s office hours. When completing my general education requirements during my freshman and sophomore year, I remember meeting the teaching assistants for the various introductory classes, filling those pesky science and math requirements, writing down their email and office hours, and promptly forgetting about it.
There were of course times where I could have gone to my TA’s office hours and honestly probably needed to. As an English major, I can confidently say that classes fitting into the acronym “STEM” are not my forte, but instead of finding time to meet with my TA, I opted for using one of my pass/fails instead, submitting myself to the notion that an “A” in a general education class was not achievable for me.
As a senior, I now find myself in the position I put my teaching assistants in two years ago. I am the TA for an introductory creative writing class, and I’m practically begging the students to email me, ask me questions, and come to my office hours (seriously I am practically on my hands and knees). I desperately want to be a resource for these students, and feel discouraged when I can’t figure out the reason for this radio silence. When asking my fellow TAs and professors what I could be doing wrong, I’m met with the same answer: Students just don’t utilize their TAs anymore. I couldn’t even dispute their claims, I myself never went to a teaching assistant’s office hours, let alone emailed them for a question.
The question on my mind is: why? Why are students choosing to push through the work they are struggling with over contacting the person who is specifically there to help them and can relate to their undergraduate experience in a way their professors cannot? I have a few theories for this quandary. The first being that the majority of classes that have teaching assistants are introductory courses. These classes take place in large lecture halls at ungodly hours, and are often the first classes students decide to skip or allow themselves to slack in. The classes are outside our majors and therefore outside our comfort zones and can sometimes bypass any intrinsic motivation a student might have. They’re easy to fall behind in, and just as easy to pass/fail.
This brings me to my second theory, and the bane to all TAs everywhere: the pass/fail. It is incredibly easy to go onto Knights’ Web and click a magical button that not only saves your GPA, but also gives you an out in a difficult class. Now before you grab your pitchforks and torches, I want to make it very clear that I am all for being able to pass/fail classes. The option has saved me many times when taking general education classes, however, have I decided to pass/fail a class when instead I might have asked for help and saved my grade in the process? Yes, yes I have.
To you then, I propose an alternative solution; before you type “Geneseo pass/fail” into your search browser, email your TA. Tell them what you’re struggling with, and ask for help. I know it’s scary, but emailing a student who has been in your position before can be much easier than emailing a professor and elicit a more available schedule and quicker reply to get to tackling your struggle sooner than later.
Teaching assistants know the ins and outs of the class they are teaching. They not only took the class, but aced it. They are the best of the best when it comes to the subject of the class, hand picked by the professor teaching the course to be able to best help you when the professor might not be able to. Their only job is to help you, to make sure that you have an extra resource to get a good grade. So save your pass/fail for a class you’re truly struggling in, and email your TA. I’m sure they would be beyond happy to be able to spend their office hours not just aimlessly working on other assignments and, instead, help you with whatever you need.
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