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Old 10-31-2009 at 02:02 PM   #31
Parnian
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Mowicz, thanks for the input. BTW you sound like an awesome math TA One that puts in more hours then is asked for, those are the best ones.

I agree that this is a very unfortunate situation. Somehow, I still feel that the union has the best interests of the TA in place (and ultimately the students, because happier TAs mean happier students). And to me, a happier TA is one with a capped class size, and all those other requests the union has put in place. They weren't necessarily asking for a wage request, but mostly asking for benefits/quality aspects of the job. It just seems bizarre that McMaster can't fulfill for example, 20 students a lab. If what everyone says here is true and that there is already 20 students a lab, then it would be easy to fulfill that request, no?

Thanks for your input. My brother is in medical physics, which is mostly math and physics. Hopefully he has TAs like you.
Old 10-31-2009 at 02:06 PM   #32
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Quote:
Originally Posted by PTGregD View Post
Democratic societies are based on the concept of majority rules; in fact, CUPE also abides by that concept of majority when it comes to their votes. Doesn't that strike you as contradicting then when they won't let their members vote? (Because they are afraid that we will vote AS A MAJORITY and overturn their judgement).

And recommendation vs. request is really just arguing about semantics.
I learned about a concept of liberty, and one of its findings is that there is a thing called tyranny of the majority which I'm 100% sure you know about. By exploiting the minority and getting away with it, eventually that minority will get so pissed off that they WILL do something about it. By negotiating and finding common ground (i.e. between the university and the union), then we wouldn't have this strike in the first place.


**Thanks to A. Marlowe. Thanks for the voting breakdown, I checked out your questions and they were very good ones. It's sad how the McMaster Student Union also has really low voter turnouts. It's really... disheartening.

Last edited by Parnian : 10-31-2009 at 02:14 PM.
Old 10-31-2009 at 02:13 PM   #33
Mowicz
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Quote:
Originally Posted by A.Marlowe View Post
Turns out I was wrong, the split is 70% Graduate Students, 30% Undergraduate. Thanks for pointing that out!
I'd like to remark on why this is the case:


As I've said hundreds of times,

1) TA-ships are forms of financial aid for grad students.
2) But of course, TA's also exist for the purpose of connecting students with professors in a more personal way.

So Mac needs a specific amount of TAs to accomplish (2). Let's say it's x number of TAs, in total.

Mac also needs grad students, who can't always pay for their education (particularly because OSAP is tailored to undergrad students). So Mac says "Let's give out the financial aid first."

So suppose there are y graduate student TAs. This means there are (x - y) 'left over' spots for undergrad TAs.

In math (since it's the only one I know) I believe we have a total of three undergraduate TAs...which is a very very small percentage of the total TAs!

And it's for this reason. It turns out that there are about (.7*x) number of grad students who need financial aid (ie. 70%), the left over are undergrads.

(This is perhaps even counter-intuitive, since it's not the best 'financial decision' Mac can make regarding the TA breakdown. But it's because money comes from other sources, such as grad student research, so when looking at how much money grad students bring in for the university, it is actually the best financial decision).

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Old 10-31-2009 at 02:19 PM   #34
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Parnian View Post
I agree that this is a very unfortunate situation. Somehow, I still feel that the union has the best interests of the TA in place (and ultimately the students, because happier TAs mean happier students). And to me, a happier TA is one with a capped class size, and all those other requests the union has put in place.
Maybe I am in the minority here, but I'm glad my class is on the larger side. If I only have 20 students in the class, then I may get a lot of weaker students, or a lot of stronger students. Having a good spread allows me to always help somebody out. The issue is that some students may be bored, or too weak to get the full impact of what I say...(but these are exactly the students that I encourage to come see me one on one.)

Now that I think about it (reading back on what I've just written) that seems like a very strange thing to say. S:

Quote:
Mowicz, thanks for the input. BTW you sound like an awesome math TA One that puts in more hours then is asked for, those are the best ones.

...

Thanks for your input. My brother is in medical physics, which is mostly math and physics. Hopefully he has TAs like you.
Thanks, I appreciate it. (:

I have a number of Med Phys students in my class actually...is your brother in Math 2A03?
Old 10-31-2009 at 02:25 PM   #35
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Yeah I'm one of those students that is too shy to talk to TAs one on one outside of class. And yes he is. His name is Alborz. I just asked him about you and he said that you have expressed that you will not go on strike and that you are a very good TA.

This whole situation sucks. Hard core.

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Old 10-31-2009 at 03:04 PM   #36
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Originally Posted by PTGregD View Post
Apparently not sure enough, since you're wrong. CUPE rejected their offer without letting anyone vote on it. (They rejected the University's request to have members vote on it)
FireDragonX is the kind of person that causes panic and ignorance to spread. It's so annoying.

He's started a whole thread and gotten people even more riled up when he doesn't even know the facts.

If members were allowed to vote most people here wouldn't even be anti-strike. Its the fact that CUPE is speaking for their members and ignoring what they actually want that is pissing people off.

FireDragonX is the reason MI needs a dislike button.
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Old 10-31-2009 at 03:17 PM   #37
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Originally Posted by sew12 View Post
FireDragonX is the reason MI needs a dislike button.
LOL that's harsh!

Quote:
If members were allowed to vote most people here wouldn't even be anti-strike. Its the fact that CUPE is speaking for their members and ignoring what they actually want that is pissing people off.
To be honest, I'm personally more irritated by people coming and being all anti-TA when the TAs haven't had the most to say in the matter, than by the matter itself.

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Old 10-31-2009 at 03:20 PM   #38
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Mowicz View Post
To be honest, I'm personally more irritated by people coming and being all anti-TA when the TAs haven't had the most to say in the matter, than by the matter itself.
This is upsetting to me personally. TAs don't deserve to have their reputation tarnished over something that is at this point completely out of their control.

Just imagine how many students there are who are just sick of hearing about this strike and don't actually care enough to get the facts. These people are going to be ragging on TAs over the strike without knowing or caring about the truth about CUPE.

It's extremely unfair and quite frankly I think the University should make them aware that they asked CUPE to allow the TAs to vote on the deal and CUPE said no and that they are the ones forcing the strike.

CUPE are the ones who deserve the backlash, not our fellow students who may or may not even want to strike but aren't being given the option.
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Old 10-31-2009 at 03:24 PM   #39
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sew12 View Post
FireDragonX is the kind of person that causes panic and ignorance to spread. It's so annoying.

He's started a whole thread and gotten people even more riled up when he doesn't even know the facts.


I just didn't get why there was so much hate for the strike. I'm pretty sure it is because they are striking and people don't like that (which is what I gathered from all the posts in the multiple threads on here).

You are one of the few who doesn't like it because the TAs supposedly didn't get any say in it.
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Old 10-31-2009 at 03:30 PM   #40
sew12
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Quote:
Originally Posted by FireDragoonX View Post


I just didn't get why there was so much hate for the strike. I'm pretty sure it is because they are striking and people don't like that (which is what I gathered from all the posts in the multiple threads on here).

You are one of the few who doesn't like it because the TAs supposedly didn't get any say in it.
Clearly you only selectively read (if at all) the threads here regarding the strike because you are obviously misinformed (or at least pretending to be).

All you do is post crap to stir the pot and just generally annoy people. Your posts are not informative, helpful nor do they even add anything to the debates you engage in. I hope you're at least having fun wasting your time here because otherwise your posts are completely useless.

Your last sentence makes no sense. You're aware that the TAs were not allowed to vote (at least now you're aware) but yet you still think the strike is okay because, "they're obviously strike for a reason."
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Old 10-31-2009 at 03:53 PM   #41
FireDragoonX
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Quote:
Originally Posted by sew12 View Post
All you do is post crap to stir the pot and just generally annoy people. Your posts are not informative, helpful nor do they even add anything to the debates you engage in. I hope you're at least having fun wasting your time here because otherwise your posts are completely useless.
>internet
>debates
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