The president of NDSU says for a research university, NDSU’s ratio of full time faculty to graduate teaching assistants is nowhere near what it should be.
Dean Breschani told a state Board of Higher Education meeting – adding those graduate assistants could be more of a political problem than a funding problem.
Those GTAs are graduate students who get a tuition break – or a waiver – through those teaching assistant jobs. Breschani says the word "waiver" creates a perception problem.
"The unfortunate use of the term 'waiver' has come to be believed that we are giving away education," said Breschani. "We're not. We're discounting graduate education as a way to draw the brightest young people to the state to pursue their graduate programs."
Breschani says that means the problem is less of a financial one than a problem of misperception.
The non-voting faculty representative on the Board – Dr. Douglas Munski – suggests that NDSU, UND and the other universities use some terminology other than “waivers” to describe the tuition breaks.
"We're talking getting national and international students -- the best and the brightest," said Munski. "If we could just do some more educating, or maybe if we have to rebrand anything, maybe call it a 'tuition incentive' or a 'work incentive.'"
