EDITORIAL: TAs are people, too

The now-aborted gradeThe now-aborted gradestrike by TAs at Yale reflectsThe now-aborted gradestrike by TAs at Yale reflectspoorly on administratorsThe now-aborted gradestrike by TAs at Yale reflectspoorly on administratorsthere, and sets a badThe now-aborted gradestrike by TAs at Yale reflectspoorly on administratorsthere, and sets a badprecedent for the treatmentThe now-aborted gradestrike by TAs at Yale reflectspoorly on administratorsthere, and sets a badprecedent for the treatmentof graduate students.The now-aborted gradestrike by TAs at Yale reflectspoorly on administratorsthere, and sets a badprecedent for the treatmentof graduate students.____________________________ Unlike undergraduates, who are usually supported by their parents or are eligible for federal or school-based financial aid, graduate students are often expected to fend for themselves. Although fellowships often pay graduate students' tuition bills, the money they live on comes from the small stipends they earn by serving as teaching assistants. Graduate students' teaching responsibilities supplement their regular coursework. But these teaching posts are critically important. How will future faculty members learn to connect with and communicate material to students if they do not have the opportunity to practice? TAs at Yale have been angrily vocal about their low wages, lack of benefits (like an affordable health insurance plan), long hours and difficult working conditions, including lack of job security. About 25 percent of Yale's 2,500 resident graduate students have tried for five years to unionize, so that they can bargain collectively for better contracts. But Yale refuses to recognize its graduate students as employees, classifying them instead as scholars-in-residence. University President Judith Rodin, who served as dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Yale before coming to Penn, also believes it is inappropriate for graduate students to unionize. She has said their teaching positions are not jobs, but merely a part of pre-Ph.D. training. This is wrong. TAs at Yale used the only leverage they had left to force administrators to address genuine issues -- but these issues still linger. If graduate students here raised similar concerns, we hope administrators would be smart enough to sit down and talk, before the quality of a Penn education -- at whatever level -- was irreparably damaged.