Normally, most students of UB overlook "Better Than Stick Figures" and dismiss it as a poorly made-up cartoon. But last Friday, Paul Hebert actually made sense with his cartoon. While Jennifer Tsai attacks him for being racist and immature, I see the cartoon as something that brings up a problem at UB: quality of teaching. The cartoon may be insensitive to some (I thought it was just going a bit far with the TA/professor speaking actual Chinese), but if you have ever sat in a science, math, engineering or CSE class, chances are you have likely run into a TA that you cannot understand. It is not the fact that the TA cannot teach, I've had many teaching assistants who knew their stuff but had difficulty with the language, as well as teaching assistants who didn't know the language or the material.
The cartoon that was published on Friday did not augment any rage among my peers; in fact, many of my peers could relate to it - many of whom are in the programs that I have mentioned. One could go as far as to say that Hebert's cartoon was not racist, but instead, it is how many students feel. Through my three years at this university, I've heard many complaints about not being able to understand a TA or a professor, so I think it is a problem that the university really needs to address by reviewing the English proficiency exams. The language barrier is something that does affect the quality of education that we receive here at the university and is very frustrating to not only us but also the teaching assistant because he/she realizes that they are having trouble and want to be helpful, but the language barrier stops them.
As for Jennifer's condescending remark about Americans not being committed to higher education in technically demanding fields, talk about racism ... implying that Americans are not as committed as international students. Maybe she should go look at other top technical schools and see that most of their teaching assistants are American and are very proficient in English.
Photo: Courtesy of Laron Fomby
