Jimmy Hoffa Got Off Too Easy
Weep for me, for this is my representation.
[Union president Eric] Lindgren said the mathematics and biology departments hire undergraduate graders as a rule, adding that this also violates the GTFF contract because the University has to offer that work to the GTFs first.
So, this has become a bit of a local controversy, and Lindgren’s statements here are, shall we say, not universally shared. (For anyone reading this who doesn’t already know, I am a graduate student in the math department. A GTF is a graduate student who teaches a class, which we all do. The GTFF is our union.)
One could make the case that graduate students in mathematics who are currently unsupported should be considered for grading jobs, rather than undergraduates. This isn’t the case that is being made, though, because there aren’t any of these students. The department takes care of us very well and gives us, you know, actual classes to teach (Hence the T in GTF, you would think.) Personally, I would prefer to see our undergraduates used for this kind of work, because they have more recent experience of the classes they’re covering, are more competent, and can use the opportunity to hone their skills. Still, I would be amenable to having down-on-their-luck grad students from other departments pick up some of the slack. The real problem, though, is economic. A grader makes $7.50 an hour, four hours a week, which comes to about $900 over the course of a school year. A GTF makes about ten times that. Plus tuition waiver. Plus health care. There is absolutely no earthly way that this can work without monumentally fucking up the organisation of the department. We have enough trouble funding our own people; we can’t take care of all the errant sociologists as well.
As I said, our department looks after us, and we have an excellent relationship with the faculty. I am genuinely sorry that graduate students in some humanities departments get shafted. However, I am also sorry that our union seems to consider the appropriate response to try and pull us down to their level.
“I would like to see the University argue that undergraduates are more qualified for that kind of work,” Lindgren said.
By this logic, you’ll notice, graduate students shouldn’t be going through homework with the answer manual, putting ticks and crosses next to right and wrong answers, since professors would be much more qualified.
[VP of research Richard] Linton said hiring undergraduates for this sort of work is standard practice for all research universities.
True, but who cares? Welcome to silly season.
