Their presence also can allow for additional class sections and smaller class sizes.

We’re happy TAs are used in primary and complementary roles, but we would appreciate it if the university made those roles clear to students beforehand.

Nothing big, just a list — online preferably — so students can find out who is teaching each section.

According to Senior Associate Provost June Youatt, “… We don’t have that information centrally and there is no reason for us to have it because every individual (TA) assignment is determined at the department level.”

It does make sense to keep records at the departmental level because they approve TA assignments. But why not have the information centrally available? Why not have it all in one place instead of scattered across several departments?

To some, the lack of records might look like some sinister plot by the administration to keep students in the dark. We wager the reason has more to do with laziness , or simple short-sightedness, than anything else.

“Do you think TAs want to report everything they do in a classroom to some central database?” asked Karen Klomparens, dean of the graduate school. “Does someone centrally want to track this? For what purpose?”

Want is not the point. Oversight is not about want; it’s about the desire to provide a quality service to paying stakeholders, represented, in this case, by students.

We’re not bashing the use of TAs or even saying they’re underqualified; just as with professors, some are bad and some are good. It’s not difficult to find a student willing to rave about a class taught by a TA.

The purpose of a database everyone can see is to eliminate part of the guessing game. All it takes is a list of class sections, an instructor’s name and a designation for either TA or professor.

For comparison’s sake, consider the Web site ratemyprofessors.com. The whole point is to inform students about potential professors. It can help students pick instructors who fit with the college experience they want or it can help find those, in most cases, a person would like to avoid.

We pay money to be taught by the most qualified individual the university has to offer; it’s only reasonable we should have a chance to choose between a professor and a TA.

It’s true: Not all students care whether their class section is taught by a TA. But some do.

Care or not, we all pay. We pay for the right to know who is charge of our class. We pay for accessibility and transparency.

MSU should take a little time to give us our money’s worth.