Having been both a graduate student and fully paying undergraduate student, I would like to comment on Ms. Bihanskyj's editorial about family health benefits for graduate assistants.

The editorial implies that graduate assistants do nothing but forego their personal time. However, graduate assistants work, teach classes and assist professors. A good deal of the introductory classes and labs are either taught or assisted by graduate assistants. Let's take away the family heath benefits and reduced tuition. We are now left with a work force of graduate assistants who each work 20 hours a week or more for about minimum wage. These assistants surely won't be keeping their jobs as TAs when they can make a couple extra dollars an hour as a waitress or cook. If the graduate assistants leave, who will pick up their teaching duties? The professors would have to pick up the burden.

We now can do a little thought experiment on the impact of TAs on the rise in tuition costs. One TA teaches 20 hours a week for minimum wage. Take the TA away and replace him with a tenured professor who makes five, 10, or more times minimum wage. Multiply that amount by all of the teaching assistants on campus.

The final figure would be hundreds of times the cost to give graduate assistants both reduced tuition and family health coverage. Wow, the tuition didn't just rise, it skyrocketed beyond belief. Giving graduate assistants family health coverage doesn't seem so bad anymore.