The University will actively work to develop legislation governing these processes. This legislation must acknowledge the University's unique culture and environment and recognize that academic matters are inappropriate subjects of collective bargaining. We will introduce and actively support such legislation in the 2001 legislative session. There are approximately 1,400 teaching assistants at the University of Washington. Most graduate assistants are not involved in teaching primary classes, but rather are engaged in teaching support functions such as staffing quiz sections and laboratory sections.
Some graduate assistants teach primary classes at the freshman and sophomore level.
These include the freshman composition sections, beginning foreign languages, and beginning levels of mathematics. Faculty are assigned as supervisors to oversee and coordinate instruction whenever TAs are involved to ensure unit learning objectives are met. Thus, there are regular professorial faculty to whom teaching assistants report. We expect that if a strike occurs, student learning experiences will be continued, examinations proctored and grades completed. The University takes its obligation to students seriously.