Philip Sandifer, Ph.D. candidate, English
I agree with Michael Walker's letter to the editor in the May 13 edition of the Alligator, which states that professors are the most important part of a university, and I share his concern about the layoffs and hiring freeze currently affecting UF. However, his criticism of graduate students teaching in the English department is deeply offensive. I have looked into the graduate students teaching upper division courses in the fall, and they are, without exception, qualified, intelligent professionals with active research careers -in some cases more active than some of the professors in the department.
I agree wholeheartedly more hiring is needed in the English department and elsewhere, and nothing compares to the teaching of our best faculty members. But to suggest that having graduate students teach reduces UF's quality to less than that of a community college is both offensive and inaccurate.
