“It was this uncertainty, this feeling of hopelessness and helplessness,” Shafer said.

Several students advocated for the elimination of shopping week, while others argued that an overall restructuring of the pre-term planning tool would be more beneficial.

As they exited the room, graduate students were encouraged to sign a petition sponsored by the Harvard Teaching Campaign that calls for the administration to set a limit of 12 students per section or lab group. The group also recently launched a survey of teaching fellows and other graduate student staff members and an official website to promote the campaign’s petition.

Throughout the town hall, students adopted a cautious tone, often refraining from naming specific courses or professors for fear of damaging personal connections.

“If you want to solve a problem, you have to raise noise,” Gee said. “However, that threatens the web of interpersonal relationships.”

Graduate students who attended the event said they appreciated the open discussion and overall willingness of participants to share their experiences, as well as the potential to collaborate with undergraduates in improving the teaching system. Some said they were surprised to learn that teaching fellows across different departments shared similar problems.

“I hope there will be a new sense of solidarity among graduate students with teaching issues now, and even better, some ideas about actions we can take to address these problems,” said linguistics teaching fellow Elaine F. Stranahan.

“You didn’t hear anyone dissenting,” said Byron M. Davies, a sixth-year graduate student. “You find that we’re all having this common experience.”

—Staff writer Callie H. Gilbert can be reached at callie.gilbert@thecrimson.com. Follow her on Twitter @CallieGilbert95.

—Staff writer Dev A. Patel can be reached at dev.patel@thecrimson.com. Follow him on Twitter @dev_a_patel.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

CORRECTION: Feb. 20, 2014

An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified the group conducting a survey of graduate students regarding their experience as teaching fellows. In fact, the Graduate Student Council sponsored the survey.