Expectations for faculty and teaching fellows - Fall 2026

To: Yale College Instructors and Teaching Fellows 
Copied to: FAS Dean's Office, Yale College Dean's Office, GSAS Dean's Office, SEAS Dean's Office, FAS Steering, Poorvu Center, Registrar's Office, Provost's Office, FAS and SEAS Chairs' Assistants 

Dear Yale College Instructors and Teaching Fellows, 

Thank you for your commitment to providing outstanding education to our undergraduates. We write with guidance on some of Yale College's key educational policies. We also provide details of the responsibilities that all faculty members and TFs are expected to fulfill when they collaborate to teach. The expectations outlined below aim to avoid misunderstandings about the shared labor of instructors and graduate workers while also supporting the academic training of our students. 

This is a detailed memo because it outlines some key principles and policies that all who teach at Yale should follow. Please familiarize yourself with these policies, which have been updated in accordance with the work of faculty committees and on the basis of decisions taken at Yale College Faculty Meetings. 

Graduate students in their teaching years are expected to teach as part of their academic training and as a financial requirement, as specified in their letters of admission, unless Deputy Dean Pam Schirmeister formally waives their teaching obligations. Their teaching responsibilities should not exceed the parameters of their appointment (TF10: an average of 6–10 hours per week; TF20 and PTAI: an average of 15–20 hours per week). 

1. Your Role as an Educator 

The Yale Faculty Handbook states the following key principles for the educational role of the faculty. They apply equally to TFs in their role as teachers and to faculty members’ relationships to the TFs working with them: 

“The integrity of the teacher-student relationship is crucial to the University’s educational mission. This relationship vests considerable trust in the faculty member, who, in turn, bears authority and accountability as mentor, educator, and evaluator. When acting in their role as teachers, members of the Yale faculty treat students and trainees with respect. They set an example of academic integrity and educate their students and trainees in the requirements of honest scholarship. They evaluate their students’ and trainees’ work solely on the basis of its intellectual merit and adherence to course or program requirements. They maintain proper professional boundaries and never exploit the unequal institutional power inherent in the relationship between faculty member and student or trainee.” 

2. In-Person Instruction and Classroom Attendance 

All teaching (lectures, seminars, and sections) will take place in person. Instructors may not make ad hoc hybrid or remote arrangements with their TFs, nor may they make ad hoc accommodations. All requests for accommodations must be referred to Student Accessibility Services. Some courses may be approved by the Course of Study Committee for asynchronous delivery. Where lectures are delivered asynchronously, courses must nonetheless include an in-person component beyond office hours. 

a. Short-term remote arrangements for faculty 

Faculty members are expected to teach in person. In exceptional circumstances (travel, illness, weather), they may offer an occasional class session remotely. If it becomes impossible for a faculty member to teach in person for more than a one-week period, please reach out to the FAS or SEAS Deans for guidance: 

• Faculty in FAS Humanities departments should submit short-term arrangement proposals to John Mangan, FAS Senior Associate Dean and Dean of Faculty Affairs. 
• Faculty in FAS Social Science and Science departments should submit short-term arrangement proposals to Bob Burger, FAS Senior Associate Dean. 
• Faculty in SEAS departments should submit short-term arrangement proposals to Kristin Flower, SEAS Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs. 

b. Expectations of student attendance and support from Residential College Deans 

Students are expected to attend class regularly, and faculty are asked to make their attendance policies explicit in their syllabi. Should concerns about student attendance, learning, or performance arise, faculty are encouraged to contact the relevant residential college dean. 

3. Responsibility for Instruction 

No graduate worker may teach a lecture course independently or supervise TFs. Faculty members are responsible for delivering course lectures. In certain cases, as part of their training for the professoriate, advanced TFs may deliver one of the class lectures; in such cases, the faculty member is expected to provide detailed guidance and substantive feedback both in advance of and after the lecture. 

Depending on the nature of their assignment, TFs may be responsible for leading discussion and review sections and/or supervising labs for laboratory-based classes. They are typically responsible for holding office hours as well. 

TFs are expected to attend preparatory meetings with faculty members in addition to any lectures and sections to which they are assigned. 

4. Course Materials 

Faculty members are responsible for preparing their own course materials, including syllabi, paper topics, essay prompts, lectures, slide presentations, homework assignments, problem sets and examinations, and scoring keys. TFs may be invited to provide input and suggestions, but responsibility for producing these materials lies with the faculty member. TFs may assist with reserving and printing course materials, obtaining audiovisual equipment, maintaining course websites, and performing other tasks that support instruction in their assigned course. 

5. Digital Devices in the Classroom 

Faculty members may place restrictions on the use of digital devices in the classroom up to and including a ban on digital devices, as long as accommodations are available for students with appropriate accommodations approved by Student Accessibility Services (SAS). Other options include allowing only “flat” devices such as a tablet or allowing all devices but restricting them to appropriate classroom use. Faculty are encouraged to indicate the policy on their syllabi. Faculty may also choose to require students to put away all devices including phones during exams, either by requiring them to be kept outside the classroom or by requiring them to be kept in a sealed bag or backpack. 

6. Sensitivity about Recess Days and Religious Holy Days 

Students taking classes report that they benefit most when instructors do not schedule assignments or assessments over recess days or on the first two days that follow them. You are in the best position to determine whether you can accommodate this request in the context of your classes; we and your students will be grateful if you can. 

You may also receive requests from students who will miss classes because they will be observing religious holy days. Undergraduate students are eligible for postponements of in-class exams from their residential college deans when they have a conflict, but the instructor is the sole authority who can determine if or how absences affect a student’s grade. Graduate students may also request holiday-related postponements. We ask that you honor them. 

As a reminder, weekend examinations in Yale College have been eliminated during the final exam period. Weekend examinations have long presented conflicts for religiously observant students and instructors, as well as for instructors with childcare needs or family commitments on the weekend. 

A calendar of religious holidays is available from the Chaplain’s office. 

7. Grading and Examinations 

Each instructor should make clear in the syllabus and at the time of announcing assignments what the course’s policy is regarding the use of artificial intelligence. Yale does not have a uniform policy on artificial intelligence, but each instructor should have an explicit policy in order to avoid misunderstandings. Model policies and relevant information are available at: poorvucenter.yale.edu/ai-guidelines. 

At the discretion of the instructor, TFs may be responsible for grading homework assignments, papers, essays, laboratory reports, and/or examinations. The standards, policies, and/or rubrics for grading should be provided by or prepared in conjunction with the faculty member. Faculty members are responsible for administering their own examinations, except in certain large lecture courses. Faculty members are also responsible for grading make-up work submitted during the semester after a course has ended. 

TFs and faculty members are expected to return graded materials to students promptly, as determined in collaboration with the faculty member. Assignments intended to prepare students for a given assessment should be returned with enough time for students to review the work prior to that assessment. All assignments should be returned within two weeks of the due date to provide timely feedback. 

Faculty instructors are responsible for grading graduate students’ examinations and graduate students’ coursework that requires qualitative evaluation. TFs should be assigned to evaluate the work of graduate student peers only when necessary, and only in courses requiring extensive quantitative work. In such cases, TFs may score quantitative homework and exams submitted by graduate students, using detailed scoring keys provided by the faculty instructor. In addition, the faculty member should review the TFs’ scoring and must assign the final grade. TFs may not perform qualitative grading of work submitted by other graduate students. 

8. Professional Development for TFs 

Faculty members are expected to visit at least one section taught by each TF assigned to their course and to offer feedback and suggestions. Offering feedback is a core responsibility of faculty toward both TFs and their undergraduate students. All faculty members who are provided with TF support are expected to meet with their TFs regularly, ideally weekly, to coordinate class activities and help TFs learn to teach undergraduate courses, prepare for sections, and grade examinations. 

9. Part-Time Acting Instructors (PTAIs) 

Departments appointing graduate workers as Part-Time Acting Instructors (PTAIs) are expected to supervise instruction through regularly scheduled meetings with PTAIs in courses where sections have a common curriculum, and through consultation before and during the semester in seminars taught independently. 

With best wishes for the semester, 

Jeffrey Brock 
Dean, School of Engineering & Applied Science

Lynn Cooley 
Dean, Graduate School of Arts and Sciences

Steven Wilkinson 
Dean, Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Pericles Lewis 
Dean, Yale College