writes an anonymous student at binghamton university: “some grad students are mad about the teaching load for TAs, so they have been putting up these posters in order to raise awareness.”
adds our submitter (with a yawn): “i am now more aware of how douche-y they are.”
related: or take a cab!!!
81 responses so far ↓
#1
César
why is this site not telling people to go vote for them in the webby awards?
Apr 29, 2008 at 6:48 pm rating: 0
#2
zchamu
Ah, the hyperbole of overeducated, overentitled grad students. I’d love to see some of these douchebags chucked into a culture where their rights are truly oppressed. Nothing more fun than seeing someone’s own attitudes come back to haunt them in UFIA kinda way.
Apr 29, 2008 at 6:57 pm rating: 0
#3
Quite Contrary
What? No clip art? We can’t be expected to understand without clip art.
Apr 29, 2008 at 7:09 pm rating: +2
#4
Wade
Apparently, at Binghamton, it is a slippery slope from hamstercide to forced labor for teaching assistants.
When will we learn.
Apr 29, 2008 at 7:13 pm rating: +1
#5
secondsout
These notes are code for: “please don’t write any letters of recommendation for me to get jobs after grad school.”
Apr 29, 2008 at 7:32 pm rating: +1
#6
Canthz_B
Time on your hands in college to think up dumb signs = Virgin Geeks not invited to tonight’s kegger.
Apr 29, 2008 at 8:02 pm rating: +2
#7
Paul G
Are those photos of Foucault and Derrida in the top row of flyers? I can’t make out the others.
No protest without a lit base, clearly
).
Apr 29, 2008 at 8:23 pm rating: 0
#8
Quite Contrary
Take a look at the grammar! Ending a sentence in a preposition? Inappropriate capitalization? Fragments? Are we really sure these grad students should be teaching?
Apr 29, 2008 at 8:29 pm rating: 0
#9
amazon
Aww, poor grad students and their free tuition and living stipends. Try being a law student and paying $150K over the course of 3 years for the privilege of being grilled and berated by your professors, while not being allowed to work your first year (ABA rules), and then being expected to intern for free.
Granted, if you do it right, it pays off in the long run, but it sucks starting out your professional career six figures in the hole.
Apr 29, 2008 at 8:34 pm rating: 0
#10
RunBarbara
I did all my learnin on the streets (like Jay Z and Dr. Dre). You don’t see me writing notes. I work at the cannery, I feed my family and I shop at Wal Mart like a real American.
Apr 29, 2008 at 8:55 pm rating: +4
#11
Jinx
so, P/A signs are the great evener. they make you look like a dumbass whether you’re young, old, or a grad student.
O O
Apr 29, 2008 at 9:05 pm rating: +4
#12
NoPunIntended
Strangely enough, I had a TA who looked just like one of the guys in the first picture, and he talked just like he had a box over his head… weird. It must be a coincidence… or there’s just lame TA’s everywhere.
Apr 29, 2008 at 9:07 pm rating: 0
#13
Sarah
The “B-I-N-G-O” sign is a fine example of indecipherable literature, up there with Ulyssses.
Apr 29, 2008 at 9:28 pm rating: 0
#14
Exploitation Anonymous
To those who are quick to dismiss and to judge (including the submitter), I recommend going to the source blog:
http://subaltered.blogspot.com/
for more information (as well as more signs and entertaining comments streams) about the campaign. Also this website:
http://howtheuniversityworks.com/wordpress/
gives further context about the appalling current conditions of academic labor. It’s not just a lunatic fringe who are passive aggressively upset. The problem is everywhere, and it’s getting worse.
Apr 30, 2008 at 3:02 am rating: +1
#15
jaywalke
You are learning the truth about academe, not just grad school. If you think things will be different once you get that fleece, I have a bridge to sell you. This ain’t your grandad’s higher education. At least you’ve seen the light early enough to possibly make a different choice.
(Sent from inside the big white tower, scrawled on a blank drop form.)
Suggested reading: rateyourstudents.blogspot.com
Apr 30, 2008 at 7:40 am rating: 0
#16
claw71
Masters of Arts? Yeah, that’s a real useful degree right there. Let’s put that on the wall next to your sixth grade art ribbon. Loser.
The problem is that these pampered little beatniks are so used to cruising through life that the minute somebody asks them to do something resembling work they get cranky and post PANs everywhere.
Apr 30, 2008 at 8:31 am rating: 0
#17
cre8tivewmn
Wow, just wow! What a lot of creative PA goodness for us to look at today! I wish the pictures were a little higher quality though, it is hard to read some of the notes.
I understand that those involved want us to understand the situation behind the notes. But if you step back a moment, as the submitter did, you will see why we find them interesting.
Douche-y?
Apr 30, 2008 at 8:59 am rating: 0
#18
Sheepish
I’m mostly disappointed in the poor choice of picture for vagrants.
Really? I’m sure Google images has a much better representation of homelessness.
Apr 30, 2008 at 9:16 am rating: 0
#19
grumpygranolagirl
We wrote “KSU Degrees — Take One” above every toilet paper dispenser on campus.
Kent Read, Kent Write, Kent State!
Apr 30, 2008 at 9:22 am rating: +1
#20
unholyghost2003
Having been a Grad Student myself and being in the age range that many of my friends are Grad Students (and recent J.D.’s amazon) I have to say that while I sympathize with the plight of these Grad Students, clearly SUNY Binghamton Grad Students are not very bright (with the exception of Galimatia, of course) … at other schools the grad students form a UNION and go on STRIKE, they don’t post angsty signs in the hope that the drunken undergrads will start a letter writing campaign on their behalf.
Apr 30, 2008 at 11:04 am rating: 0
#21
Lorelie
If they’re not there to get an education, how do they become literary?
Apr 30, 2008 at 11:21 am rating: 0
#22
Oveta
I’ve never seen a college that didn’t use their TAs in this manner. What’s the gripe?
Apr 30, 2008 at 11:31 am rating: 0
#23
claw71
I think we need to rework Johnny Cash’s Folesome Prison Blues for these poor grad students:
Just keep them grades a comin’
Scoring papers until 10
And I aint’ seen the sunshine since I don’t know when
I’m stuck in SUNY grad school, and time keeps dragging on
But that degree it’s got me slaving, right down to the bone
When I was just a junior, my momma told me, “Son
We don’t have college money so go to Binghamton
Then so I took a student loan out just to apply
When I see the TA Schedule I hang my head and cry
I bet the Administration’s all driving fancy cars
They’re drinking gourmet coffee and eating breakfast bars
Well I knew that it was coming, it was in the syllabus
But I still feel like some bitching
Because it validates us
If I graduate from college
And I have a nice degree
I’ll still feel like a victim because that’s how I like to be
I hate SUNY B-ton They took my life away
So I’ll be bitter and that’s just how I’ll stay
Apr 30, 2008 at 1:00 pm rating: 0