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TAA asks for student support at rally

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by Letters to the Editor
Thursday, April 21, 2005

We are writing to ask every member of the university community to attend a rally today to protest the massive funding cuts to the University of Wisconsin System which have hurt all of us, employees and students of the university alike. Campus unionists and undergraduates will gather together at 11 a.m. in front of Bascom Hall and will then march up State Street to the Capitol, joining thousands of undergrads and state workers at an 11:30 rally.

Why are students and unionists working together? For the past several years, Gov. Jim Doyle and the state Legislature have been cutting, downgrading and outsourcing the public services offered by the State of Wisconsin, including the UW System. UW has already sustained a massive $250 million cut, resulting in 200-300 fewer classes. The majority of state employee unions — that’s more than 20,000 members, including UW-Madison teaching assistants, blue-collar workers, project assistants, clerical and administrative staff — have been working under a contract extension for nearly two years now, with no raises even to keep up with inflation. State employees’ jobs and health-care plans are under attack and undergraduates have faced a whopping 37.5 percent tuition hike (that’s more than $1400/year in Madison) over the past two years.

At the Capitol tomorrow, we will remind the governor and Legislature that the state’s public services, including access to a first-rate education at UW, are valuable assets to the state’s citizens. This rally will mark the first major effort of a coalition of unions and students to fight for a fair tax system, affordable health insurance, affordable access to public higher education and an end to both bad-faith bargaining and the reckless and costly privatization of public services.

We look forward to seeing you tomorrow, 11 a.m. at Bascom Hall.

Ryan Gavin and Jon Puthoff, co-presidents of TAA/AFT 3220

Ruth Castel-Branco, UW Student Labor Action Coalition

Gary Mitchell, president of AFSCME 2412

Eric Robson, vice president of AFSCME 17

Frank Emspak, president of United Faculty and Academic Staff (AFT 223)


Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 1:51am):

Shove it

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 2:31am):

Fat chance.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 6:17am):

Unions reward the mediocre, shelter the lazy and stifle the ambitious.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 6:39am):

"Unions reward the mediocre, shelter the lazy and stifle the ambitious."

I think what you mean to say was "I am a shill for big business. I support it for some reason though I never have a hope of getting beyond a desk job. Mostly I am just an angry man with a small and blotchy wee wee and try to make up for it by posting insults anonymously on a college newspaper website"

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 6:41am):

UNIONS ARE BAD! CORPORATE PROFITS ARE GOOD!

WE WORKERS SHOULD NEVER ARGUE WITH AUTHORITY OR DEFEND OURSELVES!

ACCEPT EXPLOITATION! BIG BUSINESS HAS A PROVEN TRACK RECORD FOR HELPING THE LITTLE GUY!

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 7:54am):

Don't be deceived. These guys do NOT have student interests first in mind. For the non-students, their #1 goal, infinitely more important than affordable tuition, is high pay & benefits for themselves. If they could get higher pay at the expense of higher tuition, they'd sell us out in a heartbeat.

Even if you don't believe me, look at the inherent conflict of interest they face.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 8:28am):

"For the non-students, their #1 goal, infinitely more important than affordable tuition, is high pay & benefits for themselves."

What communists!! Those bastards want to be paid fairly for their job?! Take that kind of talk to China you no good Red!

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 9:09am):

Having high-quality TAs are important for our education. We won't get high-quality TAs if we continue to screw them and pay them peanuts and take away their few benefits. Therefore, as an undergrad who will be here for a few years at least, I support the TAA and my TAs getting good pay and benefits. Get it?

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 9:13am):

As a recent UW grad, I would like to know where the University is hiding all of these, "high-quality TA's".

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 9:20am):

Yeah...by high quality do you mean non English speaking? Seriously, if you can't speak at least decent English, why are we paying you? Most math and science TA's are foreign and can't speak the language well at all. Why pay them more than pennies if all we get is pennies out of them?

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 9:56am):

As a liberal arts major I benefited with some excellent TA's. It sounds like you high and mighty engineering and math kids didn't recieve the high quality education they claim they do.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 10:09am):

benefit with, or benefit from?

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 10:09am):

"Most math and science TA's are foreign and can't speak the language well at all."

This was happening 30 years ago, maybe not as much, but my room-mate dropped a Calc course because he couldn't understand the TAs broken english. (ass-i-mee-tot-tee indeed)

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 10:12am):

"benefit with, or benefit from?"

Come on, it's a "liberal arts major", what do you expect.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 10:19am):

I think an enginerd just creamed his pants because he got to correct a liberal arts major's grammar. And on the internet, maybe he creamed twice.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 11:38am):

"As a recent UW grad, I would like to know where the University is hiding all of these, "high-quality TA's"."

It's a grand TAA conspiracy to keep all good TA's away from your classes. Didn't you know that they wait to see exactly what classes you register for in order to ensure that you get the absolute worst possible TA's?

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 11:46am):

Proof that the market doesn't work:

Humanities TA's are better than Science TA's yet their future jobs pay less and they work more.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 12:04pm):

They work more? Are you deluded?

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 12:10pm):

All of the humanities Ta's I have had have worked a lot more than the science TA's. Science Ta's simply grade easy exams where as Humanities have to deal with essays and essay exams.

I think the difference is that Humanities TA's want to be teachers, and science Ta's are just TA to get a free education until they move onto their private sector jobs. Science TA's don't actually care about teaching at all-at least a lot don't. Humanities TA's tend to be Americans who want to be professors and are motivated by ethics and a desire to teach rather than just amking money.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 12:14pm):

"benefit with, or benefit from?"

In fact, either is correct. One might benefit _with_ a degree in liberal arts as well as as one might benefit _from_ a degree in liberal arts. In any case, a degree in the liberal arts would help you resolve such a conundrum of grammar. So would a better high school education, mind you -- but let's blame the TA's for everything, shall we?

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 12:35pm):

read the sentence. It states "benefitted with some excellent TAs", not "benefit with a degree in liberal arts". Unless the person was engaging in extracurriculars with the TA, it is poor grammer. speaking of high school grammar, you don't need an apostrophe to make TA plural. It is not used as a possesive or a contraction.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 12:36pm):

Science exams easy? Maybe to grade...try taking one. Liberal Arts majors...haha. What a joke. You get payed less because the degree is a joke to get. Ever wonder why when us engineering students take a non math/science class we get an A? Maybe it's because the classes are jokes and require almost no work. Get a real degree, and maybe you'll get payed more. Oh and the Humanities TAs that I've had ...wow...it's real hard to grade a paper and give me an A, oh and leading those ever so interesting discussions is tough too. When none of it involves complex scientific theories it sure as hell is a lot easier to explain.
I know it's tough to teach math/science as a TA, and I know that's why many grad students won't consider it. But I also know UW can do a much better job attracting good TAs instead of wasting money on terrible ones.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 12:59pm):

Actually it is easier to explain theories than to have a meaningful discussion. Just look at this board. Everyone has theories...where is the meaningful discussion?

Try getting a bunch of hungover kids to discuss anything at 8:50 on a Friday morning and tell me what is easier, talking at them or talking with them. I feel bad for my English TA; she tries to get these freshmen and sophmores to talk at 8:50 and they just sit there like lumps. I am sure it would be easier for her to just tell us her opinion about the poems...

I am a chem major btw so don't tell me how my major sucks etc.

It is always easier to explain knowledge than art.

Grading exams with right and wrong answers IS easier than evaluating essys. Try it some time.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 1:00pm):

to sum it up:
TA's are bitches.
Humanities majors suck, and are easy, and those who major in them are also bitches.
If you read the badger herald you are a sucka.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 1:05pm):

hey you forgot one point: Conservatism is a disease afflicting the weak of brain and the selfish of heart.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 1:09pm):

Yes grading them is easier...but the test itself is MUCH harder in a math/science course. And leading a discussion is a joke compared to explaining math and science and proving things and getting people to follow along.
P.S. If you want the easiest grades on campus, visit the philosophy department...you'll thank me when you realize how big of a joke the classes are for the most part.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 1:18pm):

"If you want the easiest grades on campus, visit the philosophy department..."

Don't you have be PC to get a good grade? (Not that it's hard to predict what the "right" way of thinking is.)

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 1:28pm):

Alot of you make the mistake of assuming that a good grade= easier to teach. There is no correlation.

Philosophy is by far the hardest subject on campus. If you get good grades that's because the prof participates in grade inflation or feels bad for you, not because the subject is inherently easy. If it's easy tell me what this means:

The question then is this: "Is it a necessary law for all rational beings that they should always judge of their actions by maxims of which they can themselves will that they should serve as universal laws?" If it is so, then it must be connected (altogether a priori) with the very conception of the will of a rational being generally. But in order to discover this connection we must, however reluctantly, take a step into metaphysics, although into a domain of it which is distinct from speculative philosophy, namely, the metaphysic of morals. In a practical philosophy, where it is not the reasons of what happens that we have to ascertain, but the laws of what ought to happen, even although it never does, i.e., objective practical laws, there it is not necessary to inquire into the reasons why anything pleases or displeases, how the pleasure of mere sensation differs from taste, and whether the latter is distinct from a general satisfaction of reason; on what the feeling of pleasure or pain rests, and how from it desires and inclinations arise, and from these again maxims by the co-operation of reason: for all this belongs to an empirical psychology, which would constitute the second part of physics, if we regard physics as the philosophy of nature, so far as it is based on empirical laws. But here we are concerned with objective practical laws and, consequently, with the relation of the will to itself so far as it is determined by reason alone, in which case whatever has reference to anything empirical is necessarily excluded; since if reason of itself alone determines the conduct (and it is the possibility of this that we are now investigating), it must necessarily do so a priori.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 2:10pm):

Confucious say, Man who pee into wind, often get wet.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 2:34pm):

John Gard say, "Fuck you students."

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 2:47pm):

I think it's safe to say that no major at UW-Madison is easy. However, name calling and grammar lessons get us nowhere substantial on the issue of solving the state's financial problems. Does it?

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 2:49pm):

Do you realize that all non-native speakers of English who become TAs need to pass an oral exam in English first? So perhaps it isn't so much their English that's the problem as the fact that the students refuse to learn calculus.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 3:20pm):

"need to pass an oral exam"

You mean like talking? or like a Monica?

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 3:31pm):

Part of the reason the humanities type classes are considered "easier" is that it is a lot easier to get an A. The subject material isn't necessarily easier, it is just that you get an A in the class if you read the material and a B if you show up for the test. Unlike engineering and other majors where they still do set the median at a c or b/c.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 4:45pm):

A plane carrying all English department professors and TAs crashes, the UW decides that the Chemistry department professors will substitute in for the semester until replacements can be hired...

A plane carrying all Chemistry department professors and TAs crashes, the UW decides that the English department professors will substitute in for the semester until replacements can be hired...

Which scenario would students find acceptable, I can tell you from my psych study that it's the first. Majors not dealing with science don't require much calculation and analysis, while english and liberal arts majors consist of reading and rehashin information already written somewhere else. While science includes regurgitation information fed to you, but also applying it to the question. (ie. you can recall a theory in art.. vs.. you can recall a theory in physics.. but now you must apply it to solve a question you've never seen)

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 4:51pm):

Here's my opinion..

Science is all about trying to minimize problems into simple equations.. Solving questions.. etc..

English on the other hand, includes stupid poems which are actually Simple messages.. written in a complex way to baffle people and have liberal arts majors spend their careers trying to "study and decypher" their meanings..

Nature does enough complex and cryptic shit.. Why not just focus on solving that instead of making up new stuff to study? (ie. Think about how many intellectuals have wasted their life on analyzing Shakespear, all that talent could have been used on something much more meaningful to the world) (P.S. If I was Shakespeare, I'd be laughing from the next world at the peons wasting their life worshiping me but that's cause I crave power)

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 4:51pm):

Stupid Mongolians

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 4:55pm):

The above argument is flawed because it assumes its premise in it's conclusion.

Personally, I would rather have an Eng prof teach me Chem than a Chem prof teach me English. It all depends really on which subject you value more. So of course you think that Chem profs would be better at teaching English, because you value their specialized fact based knowledge over and Eng Profs broader humantitarian understanding. I doubt that a Chem prof would know anymore about the ins and outs of some author's lives or the literary canon than an Eng prof would know about chemical stuctures. They both have their own specialized knowledge, neither is inherently better.

Poor logical reasoning by the way. Looks like someone needs to take a few more humanities classes. lmao

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 5:03pm):

Actually Science doesn't answer any REAL questions only the humanities can do that. Science tells us how things work, but only art can tell us how our minds work or help us to find our place in the world. But since you're a philistine you're probably not interested in that. A lot fo other people are though including almost all of the most famous scientific minds:Einstein,Newton,Gailileo-all were very intersted in literature. But you probably know more than they do so never mind...

See the thing is Republicans have simple minds (they say logical) and aren't really that into thinking about things. So naturally they don't understand Art,Music, philosophy.

Science allows us to live. The Humanities make life worth living...

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 5:12pm):

Nothing like sweeping generalizations... I will be a chemistry professor, and it wouldn't be much of a problem to teach certain English classes considering I hold a minor in English. Whether or not a professor from one subject area could teach in another is a question specific to the individual instructor in question.

As for republicans having simple minds... It takes as much "thought" to propose, research and write on a new chemical idea as it does to dissect Act II Scene III of "Othello" or to ad lib to an E flat blues background.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 5:18pm):

Let's also remember that the major accomplishment of science in the last 150 years has been to find more efficent ways of killing other humans. Say what you will about poetry, but it will never lead to our extinction.

(Not to say science hasn't done good as well, but sometimes I wonder what the final tally will be...)

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 5:52pm):

"Let's also remember that the major accomplishment of science in the last 150 years has been to find more efficent ways of killing other humans."

It wasn't science that developed the reasons for all the killing - that's was the job of the deep social thinkers and politicians.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 5:56pm):

Art sucks! Except for music videos with nice rims and naked hoes!

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 5:58pm):

Fo Shizzle

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 5:58pm):

Yeah. Authors and writers were the ones that planned to start wars. Give me a break. Authors are not equal to politicans anymore than politicians are equal to scientists.

Look I don't think science is bad or for dumbasses or anything. Just don't tell me that english and history are jokes and "so easy" b/c they're not. I was the one above who said that everything has it's place. I believe that.

I was arguing with the posters who said that Eng Profs are not as smart as Chem profs. That is blatantly untrue. They are different subjects. There is no better or worse about it.

I do think that most politicians are slimeballs and will stand by that.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 6:02pm):

Chemistry is an Art.
HAHA Just playing. Funny how "artists" call different things art and make it mystical. A painting is just a painting, a movie is just a movie, a book is just a book, an equation is just an equation.

Any person who calls themselves an artist or appriciates the arts.. Sucks.. (i kept it simple instead of makin it complex like "artists" do)..

Movie stars call themselves stars, producers are producers, authors are authors.. but artists are bitches

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 6:05pm):

Another enlightened UW student posts.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 6:06pm):

If you don't like Art go to a tech school there are plenty of them. a liberal ARTS education is about getting a well-rounded education. that's what it is founded on. Obviouslt not much educating has gone on with the above poster.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 7:21pm):

Go to an arts school.. UW-Madison is a Tier 1 Research School.. in a "liberal" city.. Of course, the whole notion of a university is a liberal arts education but those who haven't researched the school they are enrolling into were too stupid to notice it's classification..

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 7:29pm):

UW-Madison has far more scientific acheivements than literary achievements. Look at the Nobel and Pulitzer Prizes..

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 9:19pm):

"Authors and writers were the ones that planned to start wars."

What about these Authors? They were responsible for memes that led to the killing of over one hundred million people.

The pen is truely mightier than the sword!

Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler

Various works by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels

Little Red Book by Mao Tse-tung

Joseph Stalin, Author

The young Dzhugashvili joined the Social Democratic party of Georgia in 1901 and plunged full-time into revolutionary work, serving first in Tiflis and then in Batum, where he helped organize strikes and demonstrations. Thus began a life of dedicated privation. He lived and wrote under a succession of pseudonyms, of which his favorites were Koba (the name of a legendary Georgian folk hero meaning "The Indomitable) and, after 1913, Stalin ("The Man of Steel). In 1901 his first articles appeared in the clandestine periodical Brdzola (The Struggle), published in Baku. He was arrested for the first time in Batum on April 18, 1902, and exiled to Siberia in 1903, only to escape and reappear in Tiflis in 1904--a pattern that he experienced many times prior to 1917.

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 9:24pm):

Liberal Artist? Is that an Artist the same way that a Sanitary Engineer is an Engineer?

Anonymous (April 21, 2005 @ 10:19pm):

Wow, you conservatives sure do make yourselves look absurd. First literature isn't important, is easy to teach and is a waste of your time to study.

Then it is the reason that all wars started. If that were true, it would seem like there might be some merit in studying it then?

Logic evades you. Looks like you need more "useless" humanities courses. lmfao

Anonymous (August 25, 2005 @ 3:43pm):

God...
Liberal arts majors are delusional
We are so great!
We don't work!
We are stupid!
Repeat line 3 bitchy liberal art loser
that nerd you refer to will make in about 3 years 5 times your salary
as well not all of us are conservtive.
I'm not
Just wanna do something cool with my mind
I read philsophy and history
Guess what bitch ?
I liked it!

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