GESO Complaints

GESO organizers have a litany of complaints about treatment, training, salary and benefits. They say they've compared their status with that of Harvard teaching fellows and found that in all areas, Yale graduate students make out worse.

"We make less than Yale estimates to be the cost of living in New Haven," Weinbaum says. "Yale is the only school where teaching assistants are paidless than the cost of living."

In addition, GESO organizers say theirteaching assistants don't do any less work thatHarvard's TFs.

The conventional wisdom is "at Yale you'retaught by faculty, at Harvard you're taught bygrad students. That's [not true]," Liazos said.

"We do the majority of the teaching here,"Weinbaum said.

Yale TAs make just over $9,300 a year forteaching two discussion sections per semester,whereas Harvard TFs make close to $12,000,Weinbaum and Liazos said.

According to a source at the Graduate School ofArts and Sciences (GSAS), teaching fellows arepaid $3,250 per term for teaching a fifth,basically one discussion section.

Thus, Harvard graduate students could make$13,000 per year for teaching two discussionsections each term.

"[The salary difference] is on the order of$2,000. When you're talking about a salary around$10,000, it makes a big difference," Liazos said.

"Graduate students are forced to take jobs,waiting tables and doing other things," Weinbaumsaid. "It's quite hypocritical to say we have tobe finished in five years."

Yale graduate students pay between $7,000 and$14,000 in tuition, Liazos said.

"All they're getting is a gym membership and alibrary card," he said. "They're paying theirsalary back to the university. It doesn't happenalmost anywhere else."

But a source at Harvard's GSAS said thatteaching fellows don't get a break on the $18,000full tuition.

Yale's residential colleges do not provide roomand board for residential tutors.

"By and large Yale does not have teachingassistants in their [residential] colleges," saidAssociate Dean of Harvard College Thomas A.Dingman.