TA motivation should be learning, not earnings

Wednesday, February 10, 1999

TA motivation should be learning, not earnings

STUDENTS: Union should channel energy toward teaching, not
bargaining

By Tony Friscia

Well, it seems they have gotten what they wanted. After a
quarter of stalking fellow teaching assistants (TAs) outside their
classrooms and marching about on Westwood Boulevard, Student
Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE) has managed to get votes
for union representation. A yellow flier printed in large, friendly
letters in my mailbox told me so.

As a TA, I couldn’t be more disappointed.

Call me crazy and/or idealistic, but I came to graduate school
to learn. I’m passionate about the subject I study and can’t
imagine doing much else. The desire to teach knowledge to others is
as important as the thirst for knowledge, and I find delight in
sharing with others the excitement I have for my subject. In
graduate school, it should be these two driving forces that got you
here in the first place and are keeping you here for the long
haul.

I didn’t go into academia for the money because, as we all know,
there isn’t much there to be had. The desire for knowledge and to
share what we’ve learned can be our only real reason for being
here.

If you have some other reason for being here then you’re wasting
your time, your professors’ time, the school’s money, and most
importantly, your students’ time.

Being a TA is part of the educational experience. We have to
learn how to be good teachers so that when we pass on our
accumulated knowledge our pupils will learn. I would hate to see
what our colleges and universities would be like if this valuable
mentoring process wasn’t part of the graduate student
experience.

I realize I sound like I am towing the university line here, but
trust me, I have no love for the UC Regents and the powers that be
who rake in huge salaries made on a service that, in my opinion,
should be done for free, but a union isn’t the way to fix that
bigger problem.

I will admit that some professors’ memories are quite short and
they can’t remember what it was like to be in our position. These
professors use their TAs like lackeys, and only give them the worst
teaching duties and don’t provide any feedback.

The way to change that isn’t to "collectively bargain," it’s to
become a professor yourself and in turn treat your TAs the way you
should have been treated. Maybe if the members of SAGE spent less
time walking around with clipboards, getting signatures and making
flyers, and spent more time doing their theses or dissertations,
they’d be done by now and trying to make changes the right way.

I urge all TAs to go and vote in the SAGE representation
election and to vote "no" on unionization, remembering the reasons
we’re here in the first place.

Comments, feedback, problems?

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