Amherst TA Scandal

[Corinthian]

Having read the @mokusatsu links, I now think these are probably similar to the Language Residents they have at Pomona. At Pomona, their duties are described as:

Language Residents are Pomona College staff employees; i.e, they are teaching assistants, not teaching faculty or research scholars. Moreover, since part of Oldenborg’s mission is to provide structured, but still informal, learning opportunities outside the classroom, the majority of work duties performed by Language Residents also takes place outside the classroom and is designed to supplement and enrich the regular academic programming already offered by the College. Language Residents report to the Oldenborg Center Director and, under the Director’s guidance, collaborate with foreign language faculty in structuring and implementing programming that supports engagement with foreign languages and cultures at the College. As such, Language Resident duties and responsibilities include:

• To serve as facilitators in intermediate and advanced foreign language conversation classes.

• To attend weekday foreign-language lunch tables and provide leadership that stimulates conversation in the target language.

• To organize and provide leadership for Center cultural activities, such as film screenings, guest presentations, trips to appropriate local or regional events. Although students may lead some activities, the Language Resident will advise and guide the students in selecting and structuring the activity.

• To promote use of the target language and interest in the foreign culture(s) relevant to the language section; to do so in a manner consistent with the Center’s spirit of providing a foreign language immersion environment for students.

• To be prepared to collaborate with individual foreign language faculty for a maximum of 5 hours per week as agreed upon by the Oldenborg Center Director and the Department Chair of the respective language program (monitor drill sections, etc.).

• Additional duties as required.

http://oldenborg.pomona.edu/opportunities/prospectivelr/. The Pomona Language Residents also have to take 3 academic credits to qualify for their visa. I agree that it sounds far fetched that Amherst would be pressuring its language assistants to sleep with students, particularly given the recent focus on prevention of sexual assaults on campus.

[phunt01810]

I hope they were advised on “safe sex”

[cobrat]

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 currently working on her dissertation on The acquisition of argument structure and functional categories by monolingual Spanish children with Specific Language Impairment.

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

If a grad student has completed all comp/relevant foreign language/technical skills(relevant stats, programming languages, etc) exams, submitted a dissertation topic to adviser/department, and had that topic approved…a doctoral student doesn’t necessarily need to live on or even near campus so long as he/she registers him/herself each semester to maintain grad student status and periodically checks in with the adviser on progress of the dissertation thesis.

For instance, some the Profs I had started their careers while still finishing off their dissertations from institutions hundreds or even thousands of miles away. Also knew a Harvard PhD student in the dissertation stage living in NYC partially because the vast majority of his research/resources pertain to certain NYC neighborhoods.