Given that most of their tuition is paid for, the salary is enough for TFs to find good housing, put on some decent threads and even buy a beers at the Cellar on Thursday nights.

"Compared with TAs at other institutions, we're treated pretty well," Richmond says. "From what I've heard in talking to graduate students at other universities, Harvard TFs are near the top in pay, we have a decent health plan and most of us have our tuition waived as an element of our financial aid."

Harvard administrators, who don't often trumpet their excellent relations with the students under their care, speak confidently of how well graduate students are treated.

Not only do most grad students have their tuition waived for at least the first two years of their education, says Garth McCavana, the associate dean for student affairs at GSAS, but "the next two years, they get reduced tuition," he says. "And they are guaranteed teaching in the humanities and social sciences."

Medical benefits, according to McCavana, are "standard at Harvard." He says TFs are provided with Blue Cross/Blue Shield insurance.

Margot Gill, who is the administrative dean for GSAS, concludes that the structural problems underlying teaching assistant complaints at other schools--low pay, inadequate teacher training and poor communication with university administrators--don't exist at Harvard.

She goes even further, saying Harvard's relationship with its TFs is so strong that these issues aren't even concerns for graduate students.

Students aren't as sanguine.