Editor,
Students have a problem in lower-level math classes such as math 120 and math 121. I received a D+ for the math 121 class. When I approached the department, I was told, "Oh, we are doing you no favor if we pass you." The department has these classes taught by graduate students, most of whom do not know how to teach. As a consequence, students in the class are sacrificed so the graduate students may have their grade. This is also probably one of the reasons why freshman dropout rates are so high.
I signed up for a class without knowing who will be teaching it until the day of the class. This is the only class that fits my schedule and dropping it was out of question. Then I get a graduate student who can't teach because the person thinks we all know as much as he does.
It will now take me forever to reach the level of math I need to so that I can take other classes I need for my major. Unfortunately, I do not have the financial means to take five or six years to get my bachelor's degree. It would be a good idea to have graduate students teach classes at a higher level, as that is the level they are in, and they seem to have a hard time comprehending that their students don't understand everything that they say.
Another suggestion that I want to place is that the tuition raises should go toward paying professors to teach these classes, as it is obvious that graduate students get paid a lot less to teach, and the University saves a lot of money that way.
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Sara Grover
UNM student
