TO THE EDITOR:
Your Sept. 26 article, “Number of TA positions slashed due to cuts,” contained a quote — which I object — from a fellow teaching assistant and colleague of mine in the Department of History, Scott Krause.
Krause’s statement that we TAs share “a dirty little secret” about grading large numbers of exams in the face of budget cuts and larger class sizes is as false as it is pernicious.
I joined the Department of History in the fall of 2006 — well before Mr. Krause. This fall, as I am writing my dissertation, I am also working as a TA for the sixth time.
Apparently, the secret Mr. Krause refers to is so hush-hush that even someone with my level of experience remains unaware of it to this day. I am sympathetic to Mr. Krause’s overall point — that it’s hard not to feel like a chump when your workload keeps getting bigger and bigger and your paycheck remains static for years.
I think I speak for every TA in the Department of History — with the exception of Mr. Krause — when I say that we will never compromise the quality of our instruction and our careful academic evaluation of our students’ assignments. No exceptions.
I cannot allow the insidious implications of his statement to corrode students’ confidence in the rest of us.
Richards Plavnieks
Graduate Student
History
