The 400 new teaching assistants hired this year will help relieve the burden on current TAs, but they will need job security

I still remember the most important tip I ever received for doing well in any college class: The TA is your best friend.

And as hard as I tried to make the TA my best friend, most of the time it just did not work. I cannot list the amount of times I walked into discussion and had a TA who wanted section to be over more than I did. I have constantly had TAs who ended section after five minutes, were absolutely no help to me, refused to answer questions and only seemed to be there for the graduate student tuition breaks.

UCLA recently announced it will hire 400 new TAs for the upcoming school year, an endeavor most beneficial to the undergraduate population. Hopefully, this will begin to change the growing pandemic of poor discussion sections by relieving the current burdens on TAs.

TAs should not be entirely blamed for the lackluster sections; for that we can thank the university. The university stacks the odds against a TA from the beginning. Graduate students are often tasked with heading numerous sections for a class, already forced to stretch their time and resources. To add insult to injury, discussion sections can be fairly large, especially lower division general education sections.

It is impossible to be given so many students and so many sections and still be able to conduct very thorough classes. TAs just cannot answer to each and every student’s needs when they are struggling with the bigger picture of managing multiple sections.

Finally, the university has responded to the issue and is sending in reinforcements to combat the problem. Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Scott Waugh approved $15 million in funding toward undergraduate education in an attempt to provide undergraduates with the resources they need to be well educated during discussions. And while UCLA has taken the initiative to help undergraduate education, it has the ability to do more.

UCLA promises students small classrooms and intimate relationships with their TAs when they try and sway us to choose the hills of Westwood as the place to start our higher education, but it has slowly diverged from that promise. Discussion sizes have steadily grown larger and larger over the years, but hiring more TAs is a great way to prove UCLA still cares about providing students with a stellar educational experience.

UCLA has adequately addressed the issue of undergraduate education and large classroom sizes for the upcoming year, but it has not solved all its problems. The job security of TAs is still in question, as many TAs are hired on a quarter-to-quarter basis, unsure whether they will secure employment for the entire year. With an even higher number of students likely to apply and gain acceptance to UCLA next year, it makes one wonder whether UCLA has a plan for the future. Will we continually hire more TAs on a quarterly basis, leaving them overworked and worried about their job security?

The university has taken strides to give UCLA students their money’s worth. Students pay a hefty price to attend, and UCLA will finally make it worthwhile by accommodating the undergraduate education. Yet, it must soon tend to the questions graduate students are asking regarding job security, because if it does not, UCLA may soon face the problem of graduate students who no longer want to work as TAs.

Do you think the university is doing enough for its teaching assistant program? Email Viswanathan at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected].