All departments underfunded–

Dear Editor:

In the Nov. 22 article about graduate student pay (“Pay for graduate students varies among departments, report says”), I was unfortunately misquoted by Christine Kwon. Creative cutting and pasting allowed Kwon to make my comments seem as though I was criticizing the math department. My original, unedited statements were made to explain the logistics behind the disparity and not as a moral judgment on which departments were “better.”

I am fully supportive of every academic department at UCSD. Each department brings an important thread to the colorful tapestry of academic knowledge at our institution. All departments are underfunded relative to their true value to UCSD and beyond. To make up the difference, graduate students are used as cheap labor. Departments that bring in more money through grants underpay their graduate students less than departments that are unable to bring in as much grant money. Although some graduate students are better off than others, I think that all graduate students should be paid more for the important work that we do.

— Susannah McKay

Graduate student, biology department

Science classes taught tougher–

Dear Editor:

This letter is in response to a letter written to the editor on Nov. 29, titled “Nonscience majors important too.” I completely agree with the statement that no major is “inherently” harder than another. However, this is not reflected in how classes are taught at UCSD or any other institution as such.

In the response, the point was emphasized that just because one is a non-math/science major, it cannot be concluded that one has difficulty with math/science, which is a valid point. But this stigma applies to math/science majors too: We don’t all have difficulty with social science topics or writing, which brings me to my next point.

Yes, some math/science majors are extremely lacking in their English capabilities, but some just chose a career path in the direction of math or science. Automatically, however, all math/science majors are written off as those who have trouble writing, which is extremely invalid. Math/science majors take the same writing classes that non-math/science majors take, and are expected to do just as well.

But non-math/science majors have “nonscience” science classes and they have “nonscience and engineering” calculus classes. So if neither types of majors are more difficult, then why does the university recognize that our classes should be made easier for non-math/science majors while we take the upper division history, political science, sociology, etc., right alongside social science majors? I am not requesting that they change these classes for us, because that’s not necessary. I minored in one of these social science subjects and I’m glad I did — it raised my GPA.

My point is not to demean the importance of social science majors because I truly believe that they are all important to our society. My point is, for all the social science majors out there who claim that their major is not any easier than math/science majors, it’s not true. This is not because one subject is “inherently” more difficult, but because of the way that institutions across the country have accepted as the “correct” way to teach them. And if you don’t believe me, I invite you to come along with me to class one day, and I’m sure that you will change your mind.

— Elizabeth Shalom

Earl Warren College senior