I want to meet the brilliant person who claimed school was about education.
As often as possible, our university “limits” costs across campus in the name of education. Ultimately, cutting these corners is taken out on students, the very people that the university claims they are servicing.
The university knows a good deal when it sees one and graduate teaching assistants are a perfect example of the financial interest that universities maintain for students.
Teaching assistants work for the university at the same level as faculty but with fewer privileges and very little pay. As well, common respect and recognition often seems to elude graduate teaching assistants.
Graduate teaching assistants essentially work as indentured servants for the respective departments. Graduate TAs are completely under the influence of their department’s control and policies to an extreme. The university’s control and power hold graduate TAs in a contract that they might not appreciate, but are willing to bear.
I have been a graduate TA for the English Department for three years now. This position at the university has given me the opportunity to teach students while having a health insurance plan and tuition waivers each semester.
What it hasn’t given me is a blue staff parking pass.
The least that the school could do for indentured graduate TAs is give them a blue parking pass to use when they teach those required courses on campus. What the school is saying to me is, “Even though we hired you to teach college courses, you are not important enough for a parking spot.”
The symbiotic relationship between university and graduate TA works (not particularly well).
A student gets most of graduate school paid for, gets a small monthly stipend, teaching experience, health insurance, etc. Simultaneously, the institution gets hundreds of students to work for near to nothing with very few rights instead of hiring “real” faculty.
This unbalanced system of employment works precisely because of the imbalance.
Because the university holds the power of education and employment over students’ heads, the students become indentured and will literally take any recompense for their slavish efforts because they desire an education.
Often graduate TAs do not feel like their voice is heard and their needs and interests are met with the same level of importance as other faculty members.
Although graduate they are vital to each department for teaching dozens of entry level courses, graduate TAs must submit to the existing policies without complaint.
In the English Department alone, there are approximately 75 graduate TAs that teach around 125 courses each semester.
When asked about the importance of graduate TAs, Secretary to Head of the English Department JuDean Scott says graduate TAs are imperative and that “there would be no way we would be able to teach composition without graduate TAs.”
The university needs graduate TAs but departments also need to remember that graduate students are valued and necessary employees as well as students. Although graduate TAs choose to be indentured servants for the university, they are still people.
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Mistreated? Abused? Come on…
If parking is the biggest issue you raise, then I’d say the English department is doing a pretty good job.
It’s called “paying your dues”. We all have to do it. Consider what a medical intern chooses to endure to earn that white coat. Consider what a Prospect in a motorcycle club chooses to endure to earn that center patch on his/her jacket. Most importantly, consider what every service member chooses to endure in boot camp and on the battle fields in order to preserve your privilege to whine about a coveted blue parking pass you have not yet earned because you are not yet a teacher, but still an assistant. Humble yourself and look at the big picture - anything worth having is not easily obtained.
Not to mention the fact that most Grad Student TAs I’ve had did an inadequate job of teaching the class. I’ve had TAs who were afraid to communicate with the students, those who made the class very boring by reading word for word from the books, and those who I couldn’t even understand what they were saying. I actually think there needs to be mandatory prep classes or training to prepare many Grad Students to be effective TAs.
As for the parking pass, Grad Students are still considered STUDENTS. Suck it up and get a student pass like everyone else who is taking classes. Undergrad students are people, too and we’ve been subjected to losing parking to staff and construction. It’s a lose-lose situation for most students parking wise and we don’t like it, but we don’t complain that we’re being abused and mistreated for it. Be happy with your health insurance and tuition waivers. Most of us have to work in retail to support ourselves and usually don’t even get holidays off, much less a doctor’s visit paid for. In the long run, I’m pretty sure not having a staff parking permit at this point in your life is going to make a drastic difference one way or the other on your future.
Back in the 1800s, black people were still considered subhuman. Maybe the slaves should have sucked it up as well.
And yes,a staff member need not necessarily have been a professor. it could be an office assistant. I somehow don’t understand how the argument about sucking it up originates. If people had chosen to suck up, there would have been no emancipation of slaves, no voting rights for women. Can you imagine living in a hellish society where people are discriminated against? Today’s free society wouldnt have been possible if people had just sucked it up.
If the people on this board think that grad students are “just students” they should come out and say clearly that grad TAs should not be paid at all. They are in training and they should PAY TO TA. You think there is something wrong about that? Look in your heart.
You will realize that there is something wrong about asking TAs to pay to teach. And that is precisely the point. This means that grad students are both students and employees.
What is so complicated about the whole dual status thing that no one understands it? If a professor of english were to enroll as a grad student in a physics program, would you take his employee privileges away? People can have DUAL CITIZENSHIP!!! but they can’t have dual status as students and employees! come on…
Most of the insults grad students face about “whining” are due to the fact that the average populace is envious of smart people. Everyone hated the kid who seemed to get good grades all the time. Now that these people are finally adults, they notice the same smart kid hanging around, getting paid dust. No wonder they are glad. Then they decry the grad student… point out that they are still students … and therefore somehow engaged in less stressful work. Come on, if school was “just a game” how come you sucked at it so much?
You can see the contradiction right there. The person above says that “grad TAs” should be made to take prep classes. If you expect the grad students to be “just students”, you should go to their class PREPARED TO TOLERATE POOR INEFFECTIVE TEACHING! Why do you want professionalism from people you do not recognize as professionals?
Yes AB, the voluntary choice to get paid to be a TA while in grad school is EXACTLY just like being a slave and not being allowed to vote.
Yes Aaron, the idea that one human being or an institution can demand a tribute from another…or take something without proper remuneration just because he can impose his power on that person is called slavery. That is precisely why professors are prohibited to sleep with their students. Because wherever there are two sides, one of which can easily misuse his or her power to take advantage of the other, a civilized society enacts laws to keep the powerful one in check.
Itis strange that society sympathizes with 35 year olds who do not read their mortgages agreements before signing them, gives cheques to laggards who dont want to work but thinks that a couple of 25 year olds who want nothing more than to give themselves to research and teaching, giving up enormous opportunity costs, are being unreasonable in asking for a living wage.
I have no sympathy for TAs because again, it’s completely and utterly voluntary. I have an advanced degree, so I know what being in grad school is like. I also know that I chose to go back to school rather than get a living wage by going into the work force immediately after my B.S.
I didn’t once complain about my financial problems because that is what I chose to do. No one forced me to go into grad school, no one forced me to take 2 (sometimes 3) jobs to pay for it and my living expenses, so the only way I was a slave was to myself and my goals.
TAs are compensated more than enough for the fact that they only have a couple years more experience in the class they’re teaching than the students themselves in a lot of cases. They haven’t earned the right to get any advanatges of a professor because they’re not. They’re students who have decided to take a temp job while they were in grad school. If you think being a TA stinks, then don’t be a TA. Stop whining about it because no one cares.
This is absolutely ridiculous. The lack of a staff parking permit is equivalent to being mistreated and abused? How do you feel about undergrad students who also work on campus (dining halls, the colvin center, tutoring centers, etc.)? These people are both students and staff as well. What percentage of students (undergrad and graduate) hold some sort of on-campus job? Just how many people do you feel should have staff parking permits? I would guess enough to make that separation between staff/student parking worthless. Staff parking permits are meant for FULL TIME employees of the university.
Nobody is abusing or mistreating TAs. Get over yourself.
Well Aaron you should care. Because the grad students of today are most probably your bosses of tomorrow. And by the way, your point about “TAs having only a couple more experience than those they are teaching” is ridiculous; it shows how you dont see the difference between a straight C and a straight A student and one who can stand up and teach that subject. Education is not measured in number of classes; and that the fact that you dont see shows how little your “advanced degree” is worth. And btw, by grad students I meant only PhD students, other “advanced degree students” are, by and large, laughable when compared to PhD students. When I said grad student, I meant only PhD students (and MD or MD/PhD ).
No one could possibly argue that a TA is the same as a professor. And by the way, a “professor” is someone who is either tenured or on tenure track. The adjuncts, the lecturers, the instructors dont qualify; but most undergrads and “advanced degree students” dont know the difference. Would you say the same thing to a lecturer? Why should one have to be a professor to qualify for decent, fair and respectful treatment?
Watch out, that TA of today might hold the key to YOUR benefits tomorrow.
And for the record, I am not a TA, not any longer. The reason this board excited me so much was an incident that happened to me in grad school 2 years ago. There was this lecturer(M.S.) who I knew very well. I once told her how hard the commute would be to the univ where I was interviewing (because I had no car), she snapped at me dismissively: “LIKE A GRAD STUDENT TAKE THE TRAIN”.
There was little I could do on that day except swallow my pride. By the end of that academic year I had a faculty job (at a blue blooded top class U), a degree and I realized that I was just 24. That is when I went to see this person, who was a year away from retirement, so must have been 63-65 years old. I greeted her in good spirit and told her about my new job and mentioned my salary, which of course was more (though not by much) than hers. She couldn’t help complaining out aloud about how little she was paid as a lecturer. That was the time I responded with a smile “LIKE A LECTURER, YOU MUST HAVE LOW EXPECTATIONS YOU KNOW”! Man, did that feel good!
And my dear Wendy, FYI, I dont know about OSU, but most adjuncts in most places get staff permits and adjuncts ARE NOT FULL TIME STAFF. Not by any stretch.
Your arrogance astounds me AB. Many, many courses at OSU are taught by C students. Being a TA in no way indicates that the ‘instructor’ performed exceptionally well in the course he/she is teaching. For what it is worth, I was a TA as well and never did I have such a high opinion of myself.
So let me get this straight. Education isn’t measured by number of classes, but anyone who isn’t trying to earn their PhD is laughable… yeah that makes sense.
You make it seem like I’ve never had a course taught or subbed by a TA before. It’s apparent to every student in the class that a TA is not going to be able to provide the level of in-depth discussion and teaching ability of a professor. They haven’t earned it, and as such shouldn’t expect to have earned it.
TAs and Grad Assistants are still students, and therefore will always be treated like a student. I’m sorry you had a lecturer that told you to take a train, it obviously has affected your permanently. I’m also glad that you feel vindicated because you threw your job and pay back in her face, how very civil.
But for you to sit here and demean me and my education with knowing nothing about me or my education is very presumptuous is you. It’s obvious from your comments that you’re one of those people that feels like they deserve respect just because they have a PhD. And it’s also obvious that you feel slighted for how you were treated while you were getting your doctorate. For that, I apologize for everyone who didn’t give you the respect and adoration you obviously deserve. To placate you, please have this complimentary parking permit. Congrats!
thanks Aaron! Sometimes people say things that keep sticking forever. Sorry about my remarks on your education. Academia isn’t for everyone, but there were points in graduate school when I felt that choosing to be a TA also meant signing away the right to any basic modicum of respect. As I have said before, it is laughable to say that TAs should have the same rank or privileges as professors. What I said is that the University has an obligation to treat TAs fairly and it is unethical to offer a bargain to the best and brightest people around that requires them to sign away all expectation of basic minimum respect in order to earn a PhD. The reason I still went ahead with the TAing and the PhD was because I have always felt addicted to academics and I thought it was unfair for an establishment to take advantage of an addict. I was a 20 yr old once with a passion for academics, when I found someone lean out of the ivory tower and demand my soul in return for an entry into academia, I could not but feel a sense of guilt.
I have never thought that having a PhD automatically counts towards respect. In fact, when I was a grad student, I would introduce myself as a librarian, an office assistant and once even an electrician to avoid admitting that I was a grad student. This was because of how ashamed I was to say that I was one of those who had signed away all my dignity in return for a degree. I did not even attend graduation for I did not want the world to see me pick up my scarlet letters of shame. No AARON NO! THE LAST THING IN THE WORLD I AM PROUD OF IS MY PHD. I am arrogant simply because I want to get back at the world in my own way.
Anyway… here’s a smile for ya :)