In today's YDN Shalini Uppu responds to Jessamyn Blau's column and articulates one of the reasons undergraduates care about their institution's support for its graduate students: ...what is of even greater concern to me as an undergraduate is although TAs account for a large bulk of the teaching in Yale College, most are equipped with shamefully poor institutional resources and support to do their jobs well. Blau writes that "GESO members make suggestions for improving TAing that are beyond preposterous." Is it "beyond preposterous" for graduate students to ask for paid teacher training to make them better instructors? If that is what it takes for better sections and labs, let's put aside the politics and consider the idea. Is equal pay for equal work also "beyond preposterous"? Should a seventh year American Studies TA with considerably more teaching experience get paid $2,000 less than a third year TA for doing the same amount of work? Finally, is it "beyond preposterous" for TAs to demand basic things like office space to hold office hours, so undergraduates can discuss papers and exams without the distractions of a crowded coffee shop? ...if graduate teachers themselves had greater input in the placement process -- if it wasn't merely a unilateral departmental decision -- then maybe, just maybe, we might have outcomes that better suit the needs of everyone involved, especially undergraduates...The administration's steadfast refusal even to discussing the possibility of a union leaves graduate students with few options, and leads one to wonder what the Yale administration is so afraid of. Read more about these issues here.