Appendix 1A: Qualifications for the Appointment of Undergraduates as Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs)
Updated: August 4th, 2011
Berkeley: Office of the Dean of the Graduate Division
May 28, 2002
To: Deans, Directors, and Department Chairs
From: Joseph J. Duggan, Associate Dean
Re: Qualifications for the Appointment of Undergraduates as Graduate Student Instructors (GSIs)
Departments in some schools and colleges have been recommending to the Graduate Division the appointment of undergraduate students in the title Graduate Student Instructor. These appointments have resulted from a shortage of graduate student applicants for GSI positions. Undergraduates may indeed be proposed for GSI positions under exceptional circumstances, but only if no qualified graduate student from the appointing department or from other departments is available.
University policies for the appointment of graduate students as GSIs are well developed, but the same is not the case for undergraduate appointees to this title. The Graduate Division will begin enforcing a set of standards for such undergraduate appointees that is identical to the standards adopted earlier this academic year by the deans of the College of Letters and Science.
Undergraduate candidates for GSI positions must, under the proposed standards,
1. be registered in the semester in which they are teaching;
2. be enrolled in no fewer than eight units of course work;
3. have upper division status when they begin teaching;
4. have an overall GPA of 3.1 or higher; and
5. have previously taken the course for which they are being appointed, its equivalent, or a more advanced course, with a grade of A- or better.
Like graduate student GSI appointees, undergraduate appointees who do not speak English as a native language must satisfy the English Language Proficiency requirement before they can teach.
All departments have a responsibility to provide on-going mentoring and oversight for undergraduates who teach in their departments. During the semester in which they are teaching, undergraduate GSIs must be enrolled in a 300-level course or the equivalent, for purposes of training.
cc: Dean Mary Ann Mason
Vice Provost Christina Maslach
Chair Michael Hanemann, Graduate Council
Director of Appointments Stuart Fryer
See All Topics in the Category: Appointments Appendices, Guide to Graduate Policy
