After being at Iowa State University for four years, I have learned many things. I don’t claim to be a connoisseur of knowledge; however, I think I have learned quite a bit to cushion my move out into the real world of employment, and I know I will use my knowledge on the job.

But I think I could have learned more.

I admit, part of the explanation is that I slacked off in a few classes. I studied at the last minute, wrote 14-page papers overnight and sometimes didn’t read what was assigned. In other words, I just got by. I could have reviewed my class notes everyday, made sure to read chapters before they were discussed in class and researched my papers three months before they were due. But that is not me — I am a deadline person, and I am satisfied with my grades.

Most students are like this. It is difficult to keep up with everything. You have to work, go to a club meeting, work out at the rec, hang out with your friends or significant other and much more. Sometimes, homework takes a back burner.

But according to a new report by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, students are not the only ones shortchanging their education — colleges and universities are doing it to their own students.

“Undergraduate students, particularly freshmen, are being shortchanged by U.S. research universities,” said one Associated Press report.

A major cause of a students’ education suffering is colleges using graduate students (called TAs here), instead of professors, for teachers. Thus, many college graduates don’t have a needed “coherent body of knowledge.”

Most Iowa Staters can identify with this. We are a research university, though not like Harvard, MIT, Kent State and the University of Alabama at Birmingham — the schools mentioned in the Carnegie study. Just listen to Martin Jischke a few times. You will hear his repeated phrases about our school being the best land grant university and a few emphases on research.

We get a lot of money from the government for research. The Ames Laboratory, a part of the U.S. Department of Energy, is housed on our campus. The ISU Research Park just south of Highway 30 is another example of the research emphasis at our school. Plus, many different colleges and departments, like agriculture, veterinary medicine and engineering, are research intensive. And while research is important to our school and our livelihood, it shouldn’t compromise the most basic teaching at our university.

TAs can help professors, as with many huge lecture classes like Chemistry 163, Astronomy 120, Biology 109, Communications Studies 101 and others. It is hard to handle 300 to 1,200 students. But there should be a fine line between how much the professors are teaching the students and how much TAs are doing so.

There has been a lot of debate at ISU in recent years concerning TAs, with specific emphasis on the English language abilities of the graduate students. I have had several I cannot understand, also, and it has hurt some of my grades. Overall, I haven’t had a positive experience with graduate teaching assistants.

It is nice thinking that there is someone who can help out when the professor isn’t available. But when a graduate student is doing a majority of the teaching of a class, it is unfair to students and to the graduate student. Professors get paid a pretty hefty sum to teach, and I know that graduate students don’t. How much teaching assistants dominate teaching at ISU, I don’t know, but I know that ISU shouldn’t be headed in the direction of the heralded Harvard and MIT, at least in this area.

The practice of graduate students teaching courses for the typical college student probably won’t change anytime soon, except for increases in TAs in the classroom. That means it is important to take control of your own education. It may be hard to read those chapters on time and to get that paper finished, but think of it as an investment in your education — your cushion to the real world. After all, you are already paying for it.

Get everything out of it that you can. You can learn more.

---

Erin Payne is a senior in journalism and mass communication and political science from Rock Rapids.