All students who are to be appointed as graduate teaching assistants are required to attend and complete satisfactorily the Graduate Teaching Assistant Institute (see pp. D27, D29). Unless the graduate assistant has completed the Institute, he or she will not be eligible to teach a course, supervise either a laboratory or discussion/recitation section, or provide supplementary instruction in large lecture section classes independently. The Office of Research and Graduate Studies will keep records of the students who have completed the Institute and will inform the appropriate departments of a particular student's eligibility for a teaching assignment.

The Institute is offered semi-annually: during the week before fall classes begin and in January prior to the beginning of the spring semester. All graduate assistants, including those who have research and/or other non-instructional assignments, are encouraged to participate in the Institute in anticipation of future teaching assignments and in preparation for becoming a classroom or laboratory instructor.

Departments are encouraged to develop their own programs for training graduate teaching assistants. Such programs should be tailored to the specific needs of the discipline and department policies.

Potential GTAs whose native language is not English must have their language skills evaluated by measures including the SPEAK test. Those students whose competency is deemed inadequate will not be allowed to hold a GTA appointment and must improve their language skills before they can be reconsidered for a GTA position. Remedial coursework in the English Language Center is the recommended means of improving verbal English proficiency.