By
Mindy Jones
Arizona Daily Wildcat
English Graduate Union to comment at upcoming regent
A new workload decision package in the works will be presented to the Arizona Legislature in order to decrease and disperse the amount of work for graduate teaching assistants.
The workload decision package has been created as part of an ongoing plan to lighten University of Arizona TA workloads, organized by Gary Pivo, graduate college dean.
"This is definitely a priority of ours," said Pivo. "Currently TAs are working 20 percent more than stipend (their salary requires)."
The large volume of work has been the cause of concern for graduate groups such as the English Graduate Union.
"We are doing the most important work of the university, teaching the undergraduates and performing research," said Bill DeGenaro, co-chairman of the union. "The university has an ethical obligation to layout the resources necessary to compensate us."
The package includes a request to increase the number of 20-hour a week - which is considered a half-time TA - positions by about 144.5.
"We currently have 1,200 TAs serving the university," Pivo said. "However, recent information shows that the number of undergraduate students per TA is 20 percent higher than the average among our peers."
A $2 million request from the state legislature through the Arizona Board of Regents could relieve some of the pressure on TAs, Pivo said.
"We are currently being paid a pittance for our work," DeGenaro said. "It is important to note that this initiative has been revised many times, starting at $5 million."
The last revision of the package included the deletion of a graduate student internship program and the relocation of a salary equity initiative to a tri-university proposal which includes the state's three public universities.
"The tri-university proposal is in part a request to bring the salaries of TAs up to par," Pivo said. "We know that there are currently 16 departments with people taking home less than $10,000 annually. This is unacceptable."
Mary Jean Braun, a representative for the Coalition to Organize Graduate Students, said that the COGS had no comment on this topic.
"Unlike the English Graduate Union, we have not studied the workload decision package," Braun said. "We don't know enough about it at this time to comment."
Even though representatives from the COGS have not participated so far in the debate on this issue, members of the English Graduate Union plan on attending the ABOR meeting on Sept. 28 and 29.
"We plan on participating in the part of the meeting where the board allows people to speak on items that are present on the agenda," said DeGenaro. "We will express our support for the passing of this proposal."
If passed, the initiative will not deliver funds to the UA until July of 2001, at which time $1.5 million will be delivered and an expected $500,000 a year later.
"A letter is in the works from Provost George Davis to address issues related to both the workload decision package and the tri-university salary proposal," said Pivo. "A final copy has not been distributed to the campus community yet, and the objectives are still being reviewed."
The most recent version of the letter contains actions that will be taken in response to the survey published by the Teaching Task Force in the summer of 2000.
Items include the reduction in workload responsibilities, monitoring of TA supervisors to further open the lines of communication between graduate students and the relief from in-state tuition through a payroll deduction plan.
"We currently pay the university back 10 to 20 percent of our salary in tuition," said DeGenaro. "That's a cash cow right there."
