Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!watcgl!lily!mdhutton From: mdhutton@lily.waterloo.edu (Mike Hutton) Newsgroups: ut.general Subject: Re: Administrative Pork Barrel (was Re: Strike) Message-ID: <8831@watcgl.waterloo.edu> Date: 26 Mar 89 04:28:32 GMT References: <737@helios.toronto.edu> <89Mar9.140218est.9394@ois.db.toronto.edu> <1989Mar10.161738.19609@utzoo.uucp> <89Mar13.102317est.9395@ois.db.toronto.edu> <744@helios.toronto.edu> <89Mar15.114025est.9395@ois.db.toronto.edu> <747@helios.toronto.edu> Sender: daemon@watcgl.waterloo.edu Reply-To: mdhutton@lily.waterloo.edu (Mike Hutton) Organization: U. of Waterloo, Ontario Lines: 42 Please excuse my ignorance, but I just picked up this group, and in over 30 articles, have yet to figure out the reason for this strike. We get the same (probably justified) grumblings about underfunding at Waterloo, the same over-crowded classes, etc... What is different at U of T from say, here? My vastly incomplete knowledge of the process makes several assumptions: 1. TA's are grad students. As such they 'get paid' to go to school. (I've been looking forward to this for five years) 2. TA's work a fixed number of hours, units, what have you, and as thus are obligated only to a fixed portion of the underfunding crisis (unlike profs, who teach larger classes, and students who suffer through them) Am I wrong? Are there 'career TA's ' at Toronto that have nothing to do with the academic process? If so, do I want to get help on my courses from people removed from the research world? As a potential grad student at Toronto next year, I am starting to have a few misgivings. Should I stay put and count my blessings? Do I really have to join a union (bleagh!!!) to continue my education? If I do go to Toronto, will I be subject to some kind of painful existance (other than the odd all-nighter). Someone told me that Masters students teach courses - I assumed they meant tutorials? PS: You've got your CRAY, we've got the "Bill Davis centre for Computer Research" Everybody has their monetary sinkholes in the interests of friendly competition. (Actually, I'm starting to like the DC, it's kind of like the Eaton Centre without the skateboarders ...) Mike -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Michael Hutton University of Waterloo, Computer Science. mdhutton@lily.waterloo.edu