Editor:

We are responding to Eric Eyre's recent article (Feb. 5) extolling the virtues of undergraduate TA's. Ever since the infamous "60 Minutes" "expose" on faculty/graduate student teaching at the University of Arizona, the role of graduate TA's at this unive rsity has been the subject of much negativity and misperception. Eyre's article did nothing to alleviate this by presenting the views of just one graduate TA out of a total population of 1,200. Eyre's quote from Jim Cavender further illustrates the misper ceptions of graduate TA's: "Graduate TA's are doing it for the money. Undergraduates are doing it for the experience."

It is clear from this quote that monetary compensation is falsely attributed as the key motive for graduate TA teaching. Most graduate students are teachers-in-training who eventually go on to teach at another university. Teaching and research are part of the graduate student education that aid in professional development and yes, provide valuable experience for future careers as professors and/or researchers.

Also implied in this statement is the idea that the two motives (experience and money) are mutually exclusive. It begs the question that if undergraduate TA's are awarded stipends, will they be teaching "for the money"?

Just for the record, the money Eyre's article refers to is not making graduate students independently wealthy. Often awarded on a competitive basis, graduate TA assistantships (20 hrs. per week) provide on average $8,000-10,000 per year for total living e xpenses. There are no health benefits included in this package or tuition waivers. In fact, the AAUP recently ranked the UA pay scale 19th out of 21 total peer institutions in terms of state funding provided to graduate TA's. Let's put the myth of gradua te TA entrepreneurship to rest.

It is also interesting to note that the current effort to increase the number of undergraduate TA's comes at a time where graduate TA's have been pushed out of the classroom. Due to complaints from external auditors and the hatchet journalism of "60 Minut es," one would be hard pressed to find any evidence of a ground swell of support to put more undergraduate TA's in the classroom.

To put things into perspective, there are 1,200 graduate TA's currently employed by the UA compared to the 30 undergraduate TA's currently paying the university via the "preceptorship program" for classroom experience. Due to the small amount of availabl e TA slots and high selectivity exercised by faculty members, it is clear that the undergraduate preceptorship program is not for everyone. Paying to work for a faculty member may be wonderful experience, but meaningful mentoring experience may also be o btained by conducting an independent study with a faculty member. While we have nothing against enhancing the role of undergraduate TA's in the classroom, it is important to realize as Professor Rosser states: "Not every undergraduate can do this." This i s especially true in a university climate wary of pedagogical experimentation and sensitized to external criticism. We commend the undergraduate TA's for their activism and passion for teaching in an environment in which it is rare that students seize the opportunity to take control of their educational destiny at the UA. Clearly graduate and undergraduate TA's have similar goals in mind - with or without the "big" bucks.

Jeff J. Corntassel, Shelly Adrian, John Arvizu, Alec Burkhardt, Dave Colnic, Christopher Griffin, Steve Johnson, Michael Kelly, Cindy Kleback, Kurt Meyers, Tom Murphy, Laura Parisi, Howard Romanko, Steve Scalet, David Si lver, Alicia Stewart, Dave Truncellito, Becky Waugh, Richard Witmer, Stan Wonn, Peter Yacobucci

anthropology, philosophy and political science graduate students