By approving a salary raise for graduate teaching fellows and teaching assistants, the University has taken a progressive step. The raise is long overdue but much needed and deserved.
If you spread out the $4,100 that teaching assistants receive per course during a semester, it amounts to a little more than $500 per month. Most graduate students are completely self-supporting, and $500 per month is not enough. Besides, teaching assistants at UNC are constantly underappreciated. They are expected to be more accessible to students than professors are and prompt in grading assignments and tests, which they usually are.
Departments expect them to put a great deal of effort in their own research.They deserve not only the salary raise but also more appreciation from the University community.
Aishwarya Kumar
Junior
Economics and Management and Society
