In a psychology class this semester, Jim Cavender will grade exams, hold office hours by appointment, run review sections and lecture at least once.

But he's not a professor or a graduate student. He is an undergraduate earning course credit.

Cavender, a psychology senior, won't get paid for his work. In fact, he has to pay the university for the teaching opportunity- a three-credit "preceptorship."

Cavender is willing to pay to work this semester so he can gain teaching experience. But he and Suzanne Martin, psychology senior, are proposing that the university pay undergraduate teaching assistants, through scholarships or stipends, in the future.

They believe so strongly in the value of undergraduate teaching assistants, they'd like every UA undergraduate to have the opportunity.

"I thought this was good for helping people to be better teachers," says Cavender, who was a teaching assistant for an introductory psychology course last fall. "But I also learned how to be a better student."

Right now, only a few university departments offer teaching assistant positions to undergraduates. About 30 undergraduates are working as teaching assistants this semester.

Some students warn against increasing that number. They believe it may be individual departments, not students, that benefit most from undergraduate TA programs.

"The department gets a freebie, and that's not fair," says Jack Cleveland, geosciences junior. "(Undergraduate TAs) are giving up as much as they get. They have the stress of someone else's education in their hands."

In contrast to the small number of undergraduate TAs on campus, the university employs nearly 1,200 graduate teaching assistants, who are paid $5,000 to $15,000 a year.

"Graduate TAs are doing it for the money," Cavender says. "Undergraduates are doing it for the experience."

Melanie Ayers, president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council, considers it "absurd" that undergraduates would pay to become teaching assistants.

Ayers sees nothing wrong with undergraduates holding office hours and helping grade objective questions on exams, but she says, "I'm not sure about them teaching part of a course."

In addition to the psychology department, geosciences, political science, economics and chemistry departments have

utilized undergraduate assistants.

As part of Cavender and Martin's proposal to increase the number of undergraduate teaching assistants on campus, they want to establish training seminars and set up a committee to represent undergraduate TAs.

University professors have come under fire in recent months for spending more time on research than teaching. Conventional wisdom leads most to conclude that increasing the number of undergraduate assistants widens the division between teachers and students.

But some teachers argue that it brings the two groups closer together, allowing students, who are TAs, to develop close ties to teachers. Together, they plan lectures, develop tests and review class material in depth.

"I've had students tell me, 'I never really learned this stuff until I had to teach it,' " says Phil Keller, who oversees the chemistry department's undergraduate TA program.

The College of Arts and Sciences has published the only criteria governing the role of undergraduate TAs. The college cautions departments against using students solely for their labor.

"...These students shouldn't be abused as in doing the faculty member's job, just as graduate TAs do not take over faculty member's responsibilities," wrote Pat MacCorquodale, director of the Honors Center, in a memo to Cavender. "I believe that lecturing on one or two occasions and assisting in grading fairly objective material would be OK ..."

Cavender and Martin have amassed dozens of articles supporting the use of undergraduate teaching assistants. Brown University, Arizona State University, and the University of Illinois all have undergraduate assistant programs.

Studies show that students often find it easier to approach undergraduate TAs than professors because they are closer in age.

"When I ask a question, I don't have to worry how intelligent it sounds, " says Julie Farquhar, geosciences junior, who knew her teaching assistants from classes and the geology club. "I could ask questions for discussion, rather than have them tell me the answer."

Cavender and Martin plan to present their proposal for a campus-wide undergraduate TA program at an upcoming undergraduate faculty senate meeting.

Benjamin Driggs, president of the Associated Students of the UA, supports their idea, but believes some department officials will balk at offering undergraduate assistantships, in fear that they will "dilute" their department's curriculum.

Driggs hopes to incorporate Cavender and Martin's proposal into a student government tutoring project in which juniors and seniors tutor freshman and sophomores.

He says he knows first-hand the value of undergraduate TAs: he had one in an economics course two years ago.

"I thought it was great," Driggs says. "Professors only have so much time. My TA was excellent in helping me solve some homework problems."

Undergraduates have been teaching assitants at the UA for at least five years.

The Geosciences Department has one of the longest-running undergraduate assistant programs. Undergraduate TAs team up with graduate TAs to teach labs of 18 students.

Class lectures and grading fall on the shoulders of professors and graduate students.

"The buck doesn't stop with the undergrad TA," says Peter Kresan, who oversees the program. "We're paying graduate students to do the work.

"The (undergraduates) are doing it to get the teaching experience."

To qualify for undergraduate TA positions in the geosciences department, students must have taken the course and received an A, but they don't have to be majors.

Students say they have found undergraduate assistants to be helpful, and consider them "just another TA."

"They understood my experience and knew what I was going through," says Kerry Caruthers, geosciences senior, who now is a teaching assistant.

When Suzanne Martin asked Professor Rosemary Anne Rosser whether she wanted an undergraduate teaching assistant for her 90-student Psychology 340 class, Rosser jumped at the idea. Rosser had known Martin for three semester and was sure he understood the class material well.

"What attracted me to this was the individual," Rosser says. "I knew (Martin's) knowledge base. Often times, a graduate student assigned to a course might not be as good in that area."

Rosser opposes assigning undergraduates to teachers. She believes professors should choose their assistants.

"I don't think this is something every undergraduate would be in line for," says Rosser. "This takes an exceptional person."