TAs set to lose if cuts succeed

Teaching assistants across the UNC system would lose significant amounts of money under the most recent proposal from state budget-writers.

The UNC system would lose 348 filled and 407 unfilled teaching positions under that plan, released Monday. The $45 million rollbacks would only affect filled faculty posts — but TAs at every system school receive money from the unfilled faculty fund.

Bill Ward, senior associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at Appalachian State University, said that at his university, the average unfilled faculty position is worth about $62,000 — enough to fund about eight assistantships.

Provost Robert Shelton said that at UNC-Chapel Hill, the situation has the potential for devastating repercussions.

“We have had five really tough budget years, and what everyone has tried to do so far is protect people,” he said.

There is not a set number of positions that must remain unfilled, Shelton said, but the College of Arts and Sciences manages its budget by deciding how many of the positions it needs to leave vacant in order to pay for teaching assistants.

Shelton estimated that a single unfilled teaching position could fund four to eight TAs at the University.

He said that if the proposed budget cut goes through, the University stands to lose 90 filled and 80 unfilled positions, which could translate into as many as 640 assistantships.

“Of course, not all those unfilled positions are used for assistantships. Some pay for paper,” Shelton said. “It would still be a great loss.”

The loss of teaching assistants would be a burden on University faculty as well as students, said Boone Turchi, professor of economics.

“My class would be unbearable,” he said. “I would have to switch from essay examinations to multiple choice. Not only would there be larger class sizes, but the teaching quality would go down.

“If I was a UNC student, I would be very concerned about the quality of education being compromised.”

Gay Howe, assistant vice chancellor to the provost at UNC-Wilmington, said that although her school will not cut assistantships, it will not to be able to fill any new ones if the budget cuts occur.

“We have a lot of upcoming programs planned, and TAs are a part of those,” Howe said.

“The programs will continue, but a lack of TAs will have a detrimental affect.”

Howe added that UNC-W’s teaching assistants are among the lowest-paid in the UNC-system, and they will not receive the raises planned for them if the budget is cut.

For most schools, a loss of teaching assistants would mean the schools would have to offer larger classes and fewer sections — “something we don’t want to do,” Ward said.

Shelton said the loss of sections could number in the hundreds, and if students couldn’t get the classes they need, it would take them longer to graduate.

“We are very proud of our four-year graduation rate, currently,” he said. “The budget cuts could defeat that by forcing many students to take five years to finish school, which would be a 25 percent tuition increase. Technically, this is just another way of balancing out the budget.”

 

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.