Monday, May 1, 2006
The University of Kansas sends one clear message to all of its students: “Hurry up and finish.”
Undergraduates are pushed to complete degrees in four years. Graduate students are limited to 10 semesters of GTA salary and tuition benefits. The limits are in place to increase the number of degrees the University cranks out every year. This serves to improve our standing in national rankings.
Unfortunately, such pressure to complete degrees only makes students unhappy, which also figures into national rankings.
The national average time to complete a Ph.D-level program after attaining an undergraduate degree is seven years, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. The University offers ten semesters — five years — to its graduate teaching assistants. This limit was imposed only after the Graduate Teaching Assistant Coalition won its first contract. It seems retaliatory — rather than beneficial — in nature.
This arbitrary limit not withstanding, graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences are afforded 20 semesters — 10 years — to complete their degrees. After a GTA’s eligibility to teach expires, he or she is forced to pay tuition, take a pay cut to teach as a lecturer and find alternate sources of income. The University is telling GTAs — students who take classes to learn how to teach in addition to their normal course loads, students who grade papers, plan lessons and mentor undergraduates because the University doesn’t have enough professors to do so, students who have twice the responsibility and contribute immensely to understaffed departments — that they are only important as statistics in a national study.
Patrick Ross
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