One of my kids saw this come across the Washington Post Twitter feed yesterday:
I can’t believe they were told to sleep with. Socialize, yes but not sleep with.
This was pretty active in my newsfeed today since several of my friends went to Amherst for undergrad. I didn’t actually read the article until now.
At least one of the Amherst alums said it wouldn’t surprise her if true.
Ugh!
Personally, I can absolutely believe that TAs were told to sleep with students. I’m not saying it did happen but I know for a fact that it’s happened elsewhere to people I know.
For example, I know of one highly esteemed professor who told graduate students that they should sleep with athletes. (I don’t know the reason why).
I don’t even understand why a prof would encourage grad students to sleep with athletes. Why would he/she care? I guess I can get why a prof would ask a TA to entice students to his/her classes, but ewwww.
I don’t know but I know the individuals who told me this well enough to know it’s not something they’d make up.
Teaching assistants at Amherst?
Isn’t that a scandal, too?
@mokusatsu I assume it’s like it is at my D’s LAC where there are TA’s who are undergraduate students who are paid to assist the professor by doing tasks like grading some papers and doing some tutoring/mentoring of other students who need extra help. They are not graduate students and definitely aren’t teaching the class.
Not sure, but could they use grsd students from UMass?
It seems like they were from Spain. It doesn’t seem to say whether or not they were even students (unless I’m missing something, which is possible).
I refuse to believe profs told TAs to sleep with students to increase enrollment.
One person has sued alleging that she was discriminated against because she is Puerto Rican. and because she complained that the teaching assistants in the Spanish department were being asked to socialize with Amherst college students to increase enrollment. Here is the actual complaint. http://www.scribd.com/doc/294229755/Complaint Here are a few local articles about it. http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/12/amherst_college_suing_college.html and http://www.gazettenet.com/home/20256874-95/former-spanish-lecturer-sues-amherst-college-claiming-supervisor-urged-assistants-to-sleep-with-stud
While the Washington Post says they were Spanish and have returned to Spain, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/12/29/lawsuit-claims-teaching-assistants-at-amherst-were-told-to-sleep-with-students-to-boost-class-enrollment/ Amherst website suggest that it now has 3 assistants, one male and three female and at least one was educated in South America. https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/departments/spanish/faculty/teachasst
Looks like the Plaintiff has moved onto Mt. Holyoak.
Where she’s continuing to drum up business for the Spanish classes.
https://www.mtholyoke.edu/sites/default/files/styles/featured_image_16x9_input_crop/public/belly%20dancing.jpg?itok=p45uEfiZ&c=5692c22995155e0e5041f226a361e168
Her linked in profile says she is a grad student at Indiana U. I don’t understand how as she’s obviously been in Massachusetts for the past 3 years. https://■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■■/in/dimamima Here’s part of her bio from Mt. Holyoke:
She IS listed at IU. She is listed as a grad student in the Department of Speech and Hearing Sciences.
http://www.indiana.edu/~sphs/people/connell.shtml
While anything is possible, this just sounds too “out there”. I can see encouraging students to take certain classes, but it just seems too hooker-like to encourage them to sleep with students just to get them into certain classes.
Wow, back when I was in grad school the rumors were that undergrad women were sometimes willing to sleep with their TA in order to get a better grade. Mostly my male friends were laughing that nobody was offering them “a lay for an A”
I don’t understand why having sex with undergrads would get them to enroll in your classes…
“Teaching assistants at Amherst?
Isn’t that a scandal, too?”
My D is a freshman there. All of her classes are taught by professors. She has only one large class (60 people or so) and it is taught by 3 professors, who rotate the lectures. Each of the professors leads one of the three 20 person discussion sections. None of her classes are taught by TAs, because there are no TAs in the sense they exist at most colleges.
It sounds like they have hired a handful of non-faculty people to provide an extra resource in foreign languages. I’m guessing that it is so that outside of class you will always have someone fluent and available to talk with in the language you are studying. I guarantee they aren’t teaching.
From what I’ve seen of Amherst, this story seems extremely unlikely, but I guess anything is possible.
^ this. D has taken Spanish at Amherst. It’s taught by a full prof. I actually sat in on her Spanish class at parents weekend.
“Each year Amherst College recruits about a dozen international undergraduates to provide assistance in the teaching of French, Spanish, Russian, and German. The coming months will be a busy and exciting time, as you make plans for your arrival at Amherst. One of your first and most important tasks will be obtaining a J-1 Exchange Visitor/Exchange Student visa, the appropriate visa for your entry to the United States.”
https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/deanstudents/international/new_international_students/new_language_assistants
“Under the J-1 visa regulations, individuals admitted to the United States in the J-1 exchange visitor / student category are required to register for and complete a prescribed course of study conducted by a post-secondary accredited educational institution. For language assistants at Amherst College, that prescribed course of study consists of enrollment in two courses per semester.”
https://www.amherst.edu/campuslife/deanstudents/international/new_international_students/new_language_assistants/j-1_exchange_visitor_visa_information_for_new_language_assisants/authorized_stay_in_the_united_states