Dear Members,
It is our understanding that there has been a recent interest from several Teaching Assistants to receive official feedback in the form of teaching evaluations. We understand that some of you would appreciate having this information for professional development purposes and for the purposes of creating teaching dossiers. CUPE has, and does, support the practice of TAs administering their own evaluations.
That said, we feel that it is important that we highlight three important points so that the practice of these evaluations is consistent with our Collective Agreement and protects your rights, while at the same time providing you with important feedback.
- These evaluations need to be completely voluntary and initiated by you as the Teaching Assistant. The union would be happy to provide resources, such as sample evaluation forms, should you request them. Requests can be made at (cupe3906@mcmaster.ca).
- The release of this information is entirely at your discretion. The evaluations should only be seen by you and the people, if any, with whom you wish to share this information.
- These evaluations cannot be used for disciplinary purposes under any circumstance They are solely used for your professional development as well as to help build your teaching dossier if you choose to use them for this purpose.
Please let us know if you have any questions about this process.
In Solidarity,
Evan Johnston
President, CUPE 3906
**A signed PDF copy of the letter can be found here**