By
Eric Swedlund
Arizona Daily Wildcat
Senate panel moves new funding plan
PHOENIX - The UA is asking state lawmakers for additional funding to halt the increasing TA workload crisis.
One of the University of Arizona's top priorities lies in a request for $3 million - $1.5 million in each of the next two years - to hire up to 144 new graduate teaching assistants and attempt to bring the average workload back down to the prescribed 20-hour-a-week level.
"Not only is this crucial, but it is the most important issue we have at the main campus," said UA lobbyist Greg Fahey.
The Senate Education Committee approved Senate Bill 1415 by a 5-3 vote Thursday. Sen. Tim Bee, R-Tucson, sponsored the measure, which now faces a hearing in the Appropriations Committee.
"This deals with a serious problem we have," Fahey told the panel. "Teaching loads have gotten out of whack."
Gary Pivo, dean of the Graduate College, said the graduate teaching assistants are "an essential member of the teaching team."
"They extend the capacity or reach of professors," he added.
The growing workload problems have TAs working an average of 20 percent more than their counterparts at UA's peer institutions. It is not unusual to find TAs working 50 percent more hours than they are paid for, Pivo said.
"If we increase the number of GTAs, we improve undergraduate programs," he added. "We'll have fewer undergraduates washing out of the more difficult programs."
An amendment proposed by Sen. Joe Eddie Lopez, D-Phoenix, would have given the funds to the Arizona Board of Regents instead of the UA.
"This is an issue that has plagued all of the universities," he said.
The Lopez amendment would have given the regents discretion to distribute the money between the three state universities.
Sen. Mary Hartley, D-Phoenix, supported the Lopez amendment.
"We've had an awful lot of money go down to Pima County and higher education," she said. "I think it should be handled by the Board of Regents to distribute equally."
UA's officials argued against the amendment, which was defeated.
"Clearly we know we have a very serious workload problem at the University of Arizona," Pivo argued, adding that Arizona State University and Northern Arizona University do not consider TA workload a top priority.
Jason Auxier, a UA optical sciences graduate student and president of the Graduate and Professional Student Council, told the committee the request for the funding came out of a coalition of students, faculty and administrators.
"It's beneficial for graduate students to get the teaching experience," he said. "Graduate TAs need to do grading so faculty have more time with students."
The two areas with the greatest TA need are freshman English composition and general chemistry, which have 7,000 and 5,000 undergraduate students, respectively.
Sen. Ken Bennett, R-Prescott, voted against the bill because he said he is concerned by the amount of teaching that is done by professors compared to the amount that is being shifted to TAs.
