Thursday, December 3, 1998

Strike needs to end

Teaching assistants who work for the University of California took fate into their own hands on Tuesday as they waged the nation's largest labor strike for any group of graduate students.

It was staged at a provocative time, at the end of the semester when final exams and papers approach. The work load will ultimately be transferred to the professors.

UC graduate students have been trying for over 15 years to collectively establish themselves as a union.

UC official records reveal that teaching assistants are responsible for instructing about 15 percent of all courses. In addition to such responsibilities, 60 percent of "contact hours" with undergraduate students is handled by teaching assistants.

Graduate students actively participate in all aspects of a professor's career, including grading, lecturing and advising, without the benefit of a professor's paycheck.

Students are suffering because UC officials are refusing to cooperate. Classes have been canceled and grades will not be given out in a timely manner.

For extreme cases, University officials are allowing professors to grade students on the first eight weeks of class.

Administrators should put immediacy first when working out this dispute in order to give students the education they paid for.