the daily collegian editorial opinion Federal arts endowment cuts would cripple local programs With the Office of Management and Budget cutting major prograins about as carefully as a Marine barber trims a recruit's hair, it looks as if the Reagan administration considers spending for arts the split ends. The Office of Management and Budget has proposed to cut the budget of the National Endowment for the Arts in half to $B6 million in fiscal year 1982. Accounting for inflation, this will be the smallest arts budget since eight years ago, when the NEA was just starting to roll and projects were few,er and simpler. The result is obvious: arts in America will suffer. Money available to artists and schools to expand programs, carry out creative pro jects and, most important, serve the public will shrink to almost nothing. Penn State is one of the multitude of places that will feel the cold steel of David Stock man's wildly snipping shears. The University's Museum of Art could get a crew cut because of the proposed elimination of NEA's Institute of Museum Services. The institute last year gave the museum a $25,000 grant to prepare information about the mu seum's permanent collection, provide educa tional programs for central Pennsylvania school children and expand its audience. A proposed second phase of the program won't happen without additional federal aid. If the museum can't.go out, chase down and educate the public, it will become nothing more than a showcase and a warehouse for art. It would be like a library with no one to read the books. Other projects, including Artists Series concerts and the Pittsburgh Symphony's year ly residency, get NEA funding. The theater arts department has received funding to devel op an audience in rural central Pennsylvania The Daily Collegian's editorial opinion is determined a noteworthy and challenging task. by its Board of Directors, with the editor-in-chief holding In the ,past five_ yetp,,four „University ~,, final responsibility. ~...1 .• !. . 1- ' ';' l't4l;"o::;..4.tArt-" '' '' '' t ,''' l l ' - , • • •'" G adulate student. Association needs visibility, participation By PHIL GROSS Graduate Student Association President - I will not be writing today about teaching assistants, but ,rather about the organization that represents TAs and indeed the entire graduate student community. .The Graduate Student Association finds itself in difficult times. Student participation is at an all-time low, our commit tees are greatly understaffed, and our finances are in disarray. I can think of no better example of our plight than the fact that in our recent elections, I ran unopposed for the office of president. During the coming year, I will be invited to participate in the meetings of the Board of Trustees committee on educational policy. I will be invited to attend meetings of the full Board of Trustees. I will participate in the Alumni Council and Alumni Executive Board in full voting capacity. I am a member of the Student Advisory Board, which meets regularly with President Oswald, Provost Eddy and Vice President for Student Affairs Raymond 0. Murphy. I will occupy all these important positions in the role of representing all graduate students and I do so without the vote of a single graduate' student. I was never asked my views on such important issues as tuition increases, the taxation of teaching assistants' salaries or the graduate student's role •in a Penn Statd University Student Association-like reorganization of student government. Instead I must ask myself questions like, "How many grad students know my name, let alone feel confident that I will adequately represent their views?" "Under the circumstances, will top administrators take me seriously as a student leader?" and "Why can we get 200 grads to show up when we give away free beer but then, at an election, must count the voting A teaching assistant's confessions By RICKY BURGESS Graduate-speech communication Much has been said, and some has been written, about teaching assistants at Penn State. Undergraduate students often complain about the TAs' lack of experience and expertise. This com position is not a rebuttal, but rather frank confes sions from a graduate teaching assistant. TAs are in a schizophrenic position, being part instructor and part student. Most of us are ded icated instructors who are sympathetic to stu dents needs and wants. We are mature adults living below the poverty line in order to complete our education. Therefore, TAs are utilizing their present occupation to practice, perfect and pur sue their future vocation. Moreover, we take pride in our position, our performance and our scholarly peers. The liberal arts education system is based upon the educational methods developed by the Greek rhetorician Isocrates. The system was• meant to merge deductive and inductive rea soning procedures to fully expand the minds of the students. Unfortunately, our educational system o - : . .:....#.: , :.iiin1i0ns Pass the hat forum faculty members have received fellowships from the NEA, which, although it sounds like a small number, is actually quite good in the light of the intense competition for such mon ies. William Allison, assistant to the dean of the College of -Arts and Architecture and grant writer for the college, said this competition will increase greatly with the reduction in available funds. Reagan and Stockman apparently believe foundations and businesses will pick up the slack a grandiose deluSion for two such practical men. Foundations are providing less than 2 percent of the artistic activity in the country, and Allison said non-urban universi ties like Penn State will be at a disadvantage in getting foundation funding, because most foun dations are based in cities. • That leaves business to support the arts, and while businesses have funded such public relations boons as public television and radio, they have provided very little funding for Penn State in the past. The prospects are not good for increased business support in the future. Even if business would offer more support, what strings would be attached to the money? Imagine Andrew Wyeth being commissioned by Exxon to paint an off-shore drilling plat form titled "Christina's Rig." Such prostitu tion would serve only to downgrade the state of arts. So where , will arts get money if not from either the public or private sectors? There is little that doesn't fall into those two categories save heaven and hell. It won't be easy to get artists to pray for money and it will be even harder to get it delivered that way. members among the 40 in attendance to see if we have a quorum?" The Graduate Student Association must be revitalized. We must have more participation so that we can honestly say that we represent the graduate student body. We must become more visible and more involved with campus issues. Certainly the issues are at hand. The only question in my mind is GSA's ability to adequately and effectively deal with them The recent PSUSA issue is an excellent case study of our problems. Its lessons should not be ignored. The idea of a centralized reorganization of student government involving both graduate and undergraduate students has merit. However, GSA did not become involved until it was realized by some of our officers that, in its proposed form, it was not in graduate students' best interest. It was then discovered that GSA's constitution does not allow for a referendum of the graduate student community . at large. This meant that while undergraduates were participat ing in a binding vote, the outcome of which could affect grads, GSA could only conduct what amounted to an opinion poll. In spite of the obvious drawbacks of the situation, graduate student turnout was enormous and overwhelmingly against PSUSA. The lessons are also obvious. The GSA constitution, and perhaps its very organization, must be revised; GSA must be more involved in campus issues. But most important, it was discovered that GSA can indeed mobilize the support of the graduate student community, quickly and effectively. Come to our next GSA Council meeting in at 7:30 on May 5 in 101 Kern. I will be reporting my views on restructuring the organization of GSA and rewriting GSA's constitution. I will also be discussing the impact of the teaching assistant taxation issue. The meeting will be concise, informal and informative. It will be followed by a social hour, during which I hope to meet those who are also interest in giving grad students a more effective voice. Come and be heard. has emphasized primarily deductive analysis. When given a research assignment, many stu dents will ask, "What do you want me to say?" as if the purpose of the task were to simply please the instructor, instead of developing the student's intellectual skills. Hence, some students wish the instructor to "preach the gospel" on a particular subject. Yet, the object of scholarship is the formation of the individual's personal theories and beliefs. forum Undoubtedly, the most obfuscating and. an gering aspect of teaching is students' attitude toward grading. Instead of pursuing knowledge, many students are primarily concerned with the almighty A. Ironically, at the end of every term, the students who complain the most vehemently about their final grade are those receiving a B. Typically the argument voiced is, "Well, I did everything required of me. Don't I deserve an A?" The Penn State Student handbook differen tiates grades in the following manner: A (excel lent) indicates exceptional achievement; B (good) indicates extensive achievement; C (satis factory) indicates acceptable achievement. Therefore, to do everything that is require of a student in a particular course is performance that deserves a C. Most of the University's departments, and in particular the speech department, of which I am a member, have a rigorous program that TAs most complete before being allowed to teach. The success of our program makes us proud and assured that we have some of the best TAs in the country. Now, no one is asserting that TAs are perfect. As students learning teaching procedures we are bound to make mistakes but before crit icizing a TA, reflect on the about of energy you put into a course. The old adage that students learn despite their teachers has some validity. The ..r• • • ~ e , : : . . JT .. .4 r L.A. business option By LEE CARPENTER Former Liberal Arts Student Council member • 'ln repl' . ito' ThurSday'S 'editorial con eerning -the &Nil liberal arts businesS option, some defense_of the option must be made. • I agree with your basic premise. The liberal arts should offer "a smorgas board of intellectual ideals." I believe that it does. My personal prejudice, after being in liberal arts for five years, is that a genuine liberal arts education is the most challenging, therefore rewarding, experience available. Students often take advantage of those opportunites for gen uine intellectual growth. "Pure knowl edge," however, cannot be the exclusive goal of liberal arts to think so would be to face the future blindly, rather than knowledgeably While the liberal arts offer the best classical education available, the liberal arts student is faced with choosing be tween ideals and employment. The busi ness option was designed with this conflict in mind it provides students with the opportunity to combine a classi cal education with some background in business practices. When I enrolled in liberal arts five years ago, the employ ment experts predicted a continued sur- s /ff .••• „ ~;;•• . • ~.,,,,,,,,..:":.-, P: . t'i:::' . irt': , :' - '.' iiiU'ii).,'i',t,''''"''':.' • ner /\\ i :.'i,. ~1 ,' J POLAND 0 '?'N'4* 13A414 rto WORk MR. PRESIDENT plus of employment opportunites for liberal arts majors. Liberal arts stu dents, they said, received the broadest education, and therefore were trainable for any job. For some reason this philosophy evolved over the years into a general consensus that liberal arts students were not as employable as originally thought because of their broad backgrounds,. Students were not sought after as strong ly by employers and on-campus inter viewers unless they had some coursework in business. To survive, lib eral arts students started adding busi ness courses to their curriculum, hoping to expand their employablility. This isn't to say that liberal arts students hadn't been taking business courses all along. A new problem emerged. With more students in business courses, overloads occurred. The College of Business Ad ministration believed, rightly so, that its students had priority in courses they needed to graduate. Liberal arts students had priority in courses they needed to graduate. Liberal arts students with gen- question is never how much the students liked their instuctor, but how mich they learned. The thesis I advocate is that the dedicated student can learn regardless of the quality of the instruction. This should not be difficult because Penn State students are especially dedicated and conscientious. The competent and innovative instructors at Penn State will ensure the high quality of teaching. I speak for all TAs when I say it is our unique pleasure to participate in the excellent educational experience at Penn State. Granted, there are legitimate complaints con cerning graduate teaching assistants that this short commentary has not addressed. My aim was to reemphasize the fact that the teacher student relationship is not adversarial. Rather, the relationship is reciprocal, leading to the growth and prosperity of both. As both students and teachers, we remain firmly committed to our discipline, our students and the perfectability of man. Perhaps my most sincere confession is that the administration, faculty, staff and students make being a TA at Penn State satisfying, stimu lating and self-fulfilling. 4r,LANT4 . _ • '''' ''' • :7:V.,.?? • forum c l aiii ,Cfit e , 4o ; , / THE DAILY cOLLE6MAI defended uine interests in business found that getting business courses was getting more and more difficult. "41 Therefore, the Liberal Arts Student Council negotiated With fictiltS6iiid ad ministrators in bOth colleges to set up the business option. Now, because of 'the option, liberal arts students have a genn ine right to be in business courses. Many students combine their interest in the humanities and social sciences with a business background, because - it suits their career goals. Students in for*- eign language majors are obvioully more employable in foreign corporations if they have a business background. And, obviously, many take business courses because of the unpredicability of the job# market. Remember, too, that this is an option.. One can choose not to take it a stud*: can enroll in business courses withqut: being in the option, or choose not to take' any at all. I do not consider the establish ment of the business option a "selling?" out" of the liberal arts education, nor is it a threat to "pure knowledge." • There are as many if not more social: scientists and humanists in liberal arts . : who have never taken a business course: as those who have. I have to admit thal the scarcity of job opportunites frighten,p" me, too, but we're liberal arts majofs* and therefore adaptable -- still. ..- Of course we're concerned with finding , „ jobs as the popularity of certain ma jors change, students worry about the availability of choices. Some end changing their major from one they trtily, enjoy to a more "practical" major dud r has job opportunities. If anything, this; abandoning of the more classical liberal arts curriculums is the subject for con . cern. The introduction of the business optioix was a practical reflex action, legitimik • ing what liberal arts students have beel doing for years setting up back! grounds in business to expand their op= portunities. The intellectual environment still thrives in liberal arts, unsubordi= nated, and as challenging as ever. I a ._\ • .5 ,r—= .- 2 tk.--• ..n., a ........• . \ .......... \ • i 1 State College contains two universities. One charges tuition. The other is Free. Since its inception in the '6os, the Free University has been through many changes and managed to hold together. • What is Free U's current situation? Is there enough participation for it to carry on? Or is it just a hang-out for children of the '6os? - On Tuesday. April 28, The Daily Colleglanii Op-ed page will examine Free U: Its problems tc and potential. Anybody wishing to contribute, please submit letters (one double-spaced typwritten page) and forums (two to three' pages) to the editorial editor, 126 Carnegie.: Building. Deadline is 5 p.m. April. 25. • • dathelly Collegian Tuesday April 21, 1981—Page 2 01981 Collegian Inc Paula Froke Editor - 12511M1 Free Debby Vinokur Business Manager ~~% _f :-/~ daily collegian Faculty Senate By JOSEPH R. REED Associate professor of engineering, University Faculty Senator Let me being by saying that Vickie Ziegler of the German 'department should be writing this article. She chaired the bcommittee formed by the Undergraduate Instruction Com ittee of the University Faculty Senate to study the impact on undergraduate instruction of the teaching done by graduate j teaching assistants I was a member of the subcommittee, but Dr. Ziegler, who is Low on sabbatical leave, was much nearer to the pulse of the 1411•4cet. ••• • • Tlie,vvok* of , the subcommittee was completed in two parts: , - 5 14,Inforpiational reportp a pe Faculty Senate in October 1980, ,Which *was logistical in nature, and a legislative report in garch 1981, which was aimed at correcting ills frequently .associated with graduate teaching assistants. _ _ _ The informational report contained all sorts of facts and ',figures which were extracted from University records with the help of the Office of Planning and Budget. In a given academic year, the University might have as many as 1,200 graduate assistants with instuctional assignments ranging from paper grading to teaching a section of a course. rom three TAs who don't fit stereotypes y ROBERT HOLLIS, • ON SNEED laid MARIA WATSON Graduate students in journalism • "Thank goodness TA is not a four-letter word! At Penn Btate you'd think it was. Collegians and The Daily Collegian have a way of 'stereotyping groups. Contrary to what you might read, see, or hear, TAs are not, as a group, handicapped in their classroom teaching by language barriers. Nor are TAs, as a group, lousy classroom teachers. Think for a minute where most assistant, associate and full professors come from. Many were once TAs. If anyone'believes a composite picture'of a TA can be drawn by a college newspaper or a college student, then ge or she should probably but an autographed photo of Adam and Eve from a sidewalk salesman at the corner of Beaver and Allen streets. I• We know of three TAs who are over 35. We are they. Atypically perhaps, none of us has hollow, purple eyes. We. do have 30 years of combined experience in the the • e • business and professional world prior to assuming our TA roles. Experience is the key word. While it is true that some TM are short on experi ence and long on education, it is also true that the complex equation for successful teaching doesn't al ways mean that an extensive academic background automatically ensures success in the classroom. TAs have some common denominators. One is that TM are students while they are teachers. The trouble is that their expertise and interest in a particular field nay not translate into effective teaching. By the same token,. not all professors are effective teachers. Some profes sors are effective at getting writing published, and thereby acquiring tenure. These same individuals may be somewhat less than effective in the classroom. Sadly enough, professors exist who were once effec tive teachers, but, for one reason or anoher, are no longer. This is a rather complicated way of saying that with TAs, students "win some and lose some," just as with regular instructors. TA leg In 1978-79, graduate teaching assistants taught 16.8 percent of the total student credit hours generated by the University. Almost 80 percent of these were produced in the Colleges of Business Administration, Liberal Arts and Science. Graduate teaching assistants made up almost 60 percent of the total pool of graduate assistants. Of a somewhat less conclusive nature are statistics from opinion polls. The sub committee did conduct a couple of opinion polls, and the results are sketchy at best. I personally have heard graduate teaching assistants referred to by students as the best and the worst teacher they ever had. In 1979, 59 responses were returned from a poll of 200 undergraduate students. There were praises and criticisms of graduate teaching assistants in, the responses. Criticism far outweighed praise in such important categories as teaching skills and use of spoken English, particularly by graduate teaching assistants for whom English is a second language. Teaching assistants were polled, also, and many of those who had not received any teaching training wished they had. The legislation proposed to the Senate last March was passed this month. In essence, it will require in the future that graduate teaching assistants: 1) attend teacher training pro grams; and 2) receive training.in the use of spoken English by the center for English as a second language if they are judged deficient. The legislation is only a beginning step in making instruc tion by graduate teaching assistants more uniform across the entire University. Of course an undergraduate student might ask, "Why are graduate teaching assistants necessary in the first place?" There is no simple answer to this question, since it relates to the rule of the graduate student within the University, as well as to the question of where faculty members of the future come from. Graduate students usually seek advanced degrees in order to extend their education toward the limits of knowledge in their field. They are generally excellent students because admission to a graduate program requires it, but often they can't afford to continue their schooling without financial support. Such support can come in the form of graduate assistantships in research, or teaching ad subsistent levels of income. Frequently, the assistantships in research are externally funded, as parts' of larger grants to faculty members whose proposals are approved by sponsors. The student who accepts this form of support conducts research under the supervision of a faculty member. As a bonus, he might extract ideas for a thesis from his research experience. All fields require research in order to advance their state of the art. Unfortunately, popularity with external sponsors is variable and changeable. Consequently, internal funds have to be made available for teaching assistantships in order to keep viable the graduate and research programs in all fields. Students who accept this support may have to pursue unfunded ideas for thesis topics. Many students in this category may be sampling a faculty career. Hence, graduate teaching assistants who are motivated by research and/or teaching may emerge as new faculty members. Graduate students in general and graduate teaching assis tants in particular are an extremely vital part of the Universi ty. They are learning how to push back the frontiers of knowledge by conducting research. Everyone connected with the University gains, since the further the frontiers are moved, the greater the reputation and ability of the University in providing educational services. Grad students By DAN RAITEN Graduate Student Association member student representative to Graduate Council. Steve is trying to finish his thesis and his grant has run out. But because he has been here for eight successive terms, his department can't give him an assistantship to complete his Masters. His adviser tells him to apply for graduate work study-faculty aide program. Since he is eligible to receive a grant-in-aid to cover tuition and fees, the faculty aide money should be enough to get by and finish up Everything seems fine until a week before registration, when he receives notice from the Office of Student Aid saying that because he was on a half-tiine assistantship for three terms prior to this term, his income calculated using some irrelevant formula has been deemed to be too high. Ann came to Penn State to do research in her field. She has shown great promise and initiative in her previous experiences. She is given a depart mental assistantship and asked if she would please teach a few sections of a lab course. She does this, losing an opportunity to work on a research project that she really wanted. It was given to an exchange student who was equally qualified, but because the department had teach ing priorities and this exchange student didn't have enough proficiency with English, Anne got to teach and the exchange student got the research. Bill and Linda have worked hard at making ends meet as they pursue their graduate degrees. They have endured the pressures of their pro grams, thesis research and teaching, at the same time maintaining a healthy relationship and mar riage. But last year has been real tough, with several little financial emergencies leaving them financially strapped. Fortunately, they have struggled through, foregoing 'some of the little niceties that other couples their age have. They have survived up until now, that is. They are being audited by the Internal Reve nue Service, and might have to pay a couple of hundred dollars in back taxes. islation forum Physics TAs rate high with students By MILTON COLE Associate professor of physics Several introductory physics courses at Penn State consist of lectures pre sented to a large class by a faculty member, which are supplemented by laboratory and discussion sections (in volving fewer than 35 students). The last two may be taught by either graduate teaching assistants or faculty. In the former case, the experience of an under graduate may vary from exhilarating to frustrating, depending on the individual graduate student. Occasionally a student may come to question or even challenge this mode of instruction. My aim here is to evaluate and explain this system as it operates in the physics department. The same sys tem operates, incidentally, in nearly every university in the United States. I believe that it works well here. From an undergraduate's perspective, the most important issue is the quality of instruction provided by graduate assis tants. Fortunately, I am able to address' this question "objectively" in two ways. One uses the method of class evaluations. These are written anonymously during the last week of class and immediately collected by a student volunteer, who We take our jobs as TAs seriously. Our aim is to give students something that will stick to their ribs —some thing they can take home with them and use. We don't view students as parrots who regurgitate facts, and we strive to make our teaching fruitful by blending instruc tion with practical lessons drawn from our work experi ence. We are less interested in a student's success rate for completing college courses that we are with giving that student the intellectual tools and practical skills nec essary to excel after graduation. Similarly, we are not as concerned with the quality of TAs teaching as we are with the declining writing abilities of more than a few students, both undergrad uates and graduates. We bear witness to a decline in writing skills daily. Nevertheless, it is unfair to condemn every under grad and grad on the basis of our experiences. Just as there are good writers at Penn State, there are also good TAs. a crossroads must unite to face tough times ahead These are examples of the kinds of problems facing graduate students. In the past, these types of situations have been more the exception than the rule. Howeirer, there is an insidious change taking place. It is one that threatens the very nature of graduate education. The concept of fiscal accountability has become a motivating force in all our lives. The government and other funding agencies are no longer willing to finance the training and education of graduate students. Witness new guidelines that outline the formu la for distributing federal grant money, and determine how much money goes to the Universi ty for operating costs and how much the research er keeps. As it works now, the cost of graduate tuition and fees is included In the money that went to the University so the researcher can write the grant and not have to include that in the direct cost of the research. But as of July, tuition will be included as a direct cost of the research. This means that it will be cheaper for some researchers to hire one full time technician than to hire two half-time grad assistants. This is but one small shift in a large pattern. In the passionate plunge toward national economic stability, low-cost student loans are becoming a thing of the past. Fellowships are disappearing and funding for research in many fields is disap pearing. To the graduate student of today and tomor row, this all means that we will be under increas ing pressure to tow the line and do whatever we are told if it means some money to live on. The attitude can be seen already: students are told, "This is graduate school, it's supposed to be tough, and if you don't like it there are 1 00 applicants behind you who would love the oppor tunityithat you have " Graduate faculty are faced with increasing pressure to bring in money. The result of a disproportionate emphasis on grantsmanship is a de-emphasis on quality teaching and advisement. Advisement at Penn State ranges from excel lent to nonexistent. The trend is toward the latter. This is due to the unending presiure on faculty to produce, combined with a lack of initiative and assertiveness on the part of graduate students. Even an adviser with the best intentions can't help a student who is "too busy" or too intim idated to express a legitimate complaint. brings them to the physics department office. Several weeks later (after grades are submitted), they are read, first by the faculty member in charge of the course and then by the individual grad uate assistant. Obviously there is a substantial varia tion of the assessments given to various assistants. One result, however, can be stated simply: in the physics department the average rating of assistants is some what better than "good" on a scale presenting the choices "excellent," "good," "fair," and poor. The same average rating is given to faculty mem bers doing the same teaching. This is a remarkably strong statement of appro val by the students for both of these groups. It shows that both are, on the whole, conscientious and qualified. Some students and faculty have argued that such evaluations are not the best means of assessing instructional quality. An alternative method is to determine student performance in these courses. A similar result is obtained: on a given test, students who have a graduate stu dent in charge of their class perform as well, on average, as those who have a faculty member in charge. Of course these conclusions about av erages do not provide the complete pic ture. Some graduate students' ratings fall in the excellent category. We are very proud of these and honor them with teaching awards. By definition, half do worse than average. Their performance There are answers to these problems, but they will involve a coordinated effort among the grad uate faculty, the graduate school administration, and the graduate student community. The graduate school must begin to go beyond unsympathetic rhetoric and convince the admin istration that graduate education at Penn State is not at a crossroad. Grad students need supptlzt to call off the IRS's policy of harrassment and give grad students who are already approaching poverty level some tax relief. Grad students need a separate office of finan cial ,aid, not just an individual tangled up in the hopeless morass of Boucke bureaucracy. Perhaps the best solution would be a separate grad student financial aid office in Kern Building that would include a tax consultant or at least some coherent tax advisement. On a policy level, the time has come for a standardized procedure that would ensure that all graduate students have the opportunity at least once a year to sit down with their adviser and a committee and evaluate where they have been and where they are going. This would be a chance for faculty members to express the feelings about the student's responsibility and.give the student a clear understanding of their expectations. It would also allow for a firm understanding of the students' financial situation so at least they wouldn't have to worry about being "purged" in a fit of financial austerity in the middle of Winter Term. Most importantly, it would mandate that channels of communication be open from both sides. Graduate students also have a responsibility to solve these problems. We must stop the alienation we create between ourselves and graduate fac ility. We must realize that we are all being affected by these problems. Being too busy is no longer a viable excuse when another graduate student is being exploited under too great a workload. The Graduate Student Association has at tempted and will continue to try to advocate the graduate student position in these forums open to us. In order to be effective we need a unified, informed constituency. It's time for graduate students to come out of the closet and support each other, today and for the future of graduate education at Penn State. often improves after the standard mid term class monitoring by the supervising faculty member. In the rare case of a serious deficiency, the student is relieved of his duties. About one-third of the physics grad uate students in United States universi ties come from abroad. The foreign students at Penn State are often our best, both in research and teaching. They provide, in addition, an element of cultu ral enrichment to our environment. In some cases, there is a communication difficulty owing to their accent. The department is aware of such situations. Both in admissions policy and in class assignments we select students to mini mize this problem. Finally, I want to explain the necessity for the physics department to employ graduate teaching assistants. The rea sons, not in order of importance, are: 1) to provide financial support for graduate students, 2) to enable large lecture courses to be split into much smaller discussion sections while relieving the faculty of what would otherwise be an excessive teaching load, 3) to help train graduate students for teachibg, and 4) to provide quality education at a low cost. These motivations pertain to our per ceived mission of both graudate and undergraduate teaching. I feel strongly that these are quite compatible. The evidence cited above indicates that the present system of using graduate teach ing assistants does not in the slightest compromise the quality of our under graduate instruction. 010 by Renee Jacobs tr\A Illustration by blichul
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers