LSA freshman Areej El-Jawahri said she first noticed the inconsistencies of the University"s Graduate Student Instructors after her Great Books 191 GSI repeatedly graded assignments harder than GSIs teaching the other discussions.

El-Jawahri said she urged the LSA Student Government"s Academic Affairs Committee, of which she is a member, to conduct an e-mail survey of the entire LSA student body to "examine whether there is a problem or establish to the administration that the students aren"t happy with the GSIs in terms of consistency of grading."

The 527 responses quantified complaints she had heard from many students, El-Jawahri said. Many students said a problem exists in the quality of preparation, consistency of grades and assigned workload by GSIs leading different sections of the same course.

"Students are concerned about this issue," she said. "It"s more than just a backlash."

One-third of students who responded said their discussion sections did not prepare them for midterm or final exams, and 26 percent said the GSI did not investigate themes relevant to the central focus of the course.

LSA-SG representative Gwen Arnold said the Academic Affairs Committee plans to meet with University administrators, using the survey results to push for reforms within individual departments. The committee will target the math, economics and great books departments, which received the most complaints from students.

Arnold said that although the math department has improved its preparation of GSIs since last year, it is still the worst department in terms of ensuring quality GSI teaching. "When complaints do arise, students generally are concerned about GSIs not covering the same concepts with sufficient depth and thus leaving some sections ill-prepared for exams," Arnold said.

The Academic Affairs Committee"s report said several students complained that some GSIs do not sufficiently review material presented in lectures and end up confusing students, while many GSIs do not like teaching.

Math GSI Robert Houck said he has noticed preparation for teaching varies among GSIs, partly because students and faculty have low expectations for the quality of teaching from GSIs.

Houck said he believes some GSIs think, "nobody"s expecting much of me, so I really don"t have to do well."

Other students said many GSIs speak poor English, which affects their image as dependable teachers.

Houck said fluency of English may be a problem because occasionally students do not understand concepts explained by GSIs who are not native English speakers.

Also, 42 percent of the respondents said the amount of homework assigned in different sections of a course varies by GSI, and half the students felt their GSI"s grades are not consistent with the standards of other GSIs.

But despite these results, several GSIs said grading differences are minor and assignments are consistent across different sections.

Math GSI Zair Ibragimov said the math department sets a uniform syllabus for classes taught by GSIs that details the problems GSIs should assign as homework. He said each section of a course takes the same exam.

Math GSIs also grade exams in groups to ensure that partial credit is assigned equally, Houck said.

Garosi added that the economics department adjusts grades from different sections to take into account differences in GSI grading standards. He said the adjustments never affect students" scores greatly.

El-Jawahri said that although many students feel their GSIs are inadequate teachers, criticism cannot be pointed solely at them. She said departments are responsible for the quality of their GSIs and the teaching they provide.

"GSIs aren"t given enough training," she said. "There"s a need for more faculty-GSI interaction. There"s a need for more GSI-GSI interaction."

Houck said although Math GSIs receive a week of training which consists of workshops and classroom simulations and faculty occasionally sit in on classes taught by first-year GSIs, he felt lost during his first year of teaching.

But Economics GSI Justin Garosi said training sessions should not be expanded because GSIs improve their teaching through experience. "You learn by trial and error, finding out what works and what doesn"t," Garosi said.

Respondents said the German and communications departments provided consistent GSI standards. Arnold said the success of these departments was partly due to the smaller number of GSI-taught sections offered.