Last week during a heated game of Texas Hold 'Em, my friend Matt had a novel idea.
He proposed that, in the event that the Teaching Assistants Association proves unable to resolve its contractual dispute with the state of Wisconsin, the university should fill the void left by the striking TAs with State Street panhandlers, thereby solving two problems in one easy step.
Initially, I thought Matt's proposal was both clever and insightful, and I was somewhat disappointed that I hadn't come up with the idea myself. Granted, my personal experiences with the TAs here at UW-Madison have been phenomenal both past and present, but my wariness over the impending strike made Matt's \bum-replacement scenario"" that much more attractive.
Health care? Panhandlers live life by the Code of the Street, and the only ""health care"" that matters is a bottle of ibuprofen and a hot apple pie at McDonald's. Pay cut? The bums would be happy to grade essays and exams for $100 a week-well, that and the spare change they'd shake down in discussions. Quality of education? Forget grad school-the new generation of TAs will be doctoral candidates in the School of Hard Knocks.
Supplanting the disgruntled TAs with the street denizens of Madison seemed to me to be best and most entertaining solution to this whole state-TAA conflict. How sorely I was mistaken.
The proposed two-day TA strike later this month would invariably disrupt the UW. The possibility of the TAA withholding grades at the end of the semester, ""Plan B"" for the TAA, would destroy the university. I want neither of these actions.
At first, I was enraged at the TAA for threatening not only my educational future, but the real-world futures of my graduating friends, whose transcripts will be incomplete, thus jeopardizing their graduations, grad-school admissions and job opportunities.
I thought, ""How dare they mess up our lives over their dispute with the state, which we have no part in?"" We pay to go to school here, to get an adequate education from a prestigious university, and the TAA decides to hold us for ransom for transgressions we have no part in.
But now, after exploring both sides of the issue and contemplating the impact of failed negotiations, I feel that I understand not only the unfortunate position the TAA is in, but also our unique position in the matter as undergraduates. It's all about respect-and right now, the state respects neither the TAs nor the students of UW-Madison.
The state, via its control over the budget of the UW System, is stealing from us. Tuition goes up as education goes down. Opportunity shrinks while valuable classes and degree programs continue to disappear. Each semester, more students are packed in, forcing us to fight for living space, class time, professors' attention and individual recognition.
If we continue to let the state steamroll our education, UW-Madison will be nothing more than an engineering department, two ethnic studies courses (for diversity) and a football team.
The state has taken practically everything from us, all in the name of saving money. In a roundabout way, the TAs are all we really have left. And now the state is threatening them, too.
Support the TAA-they humanize our education. Shouldn't we treat them like humans?
Peter can be reached at writePNL@yahoo.com.
