More than 150 graduate employees, undergraduates, and faculty members marched across the campus Thursday beating buckets like drums and carrying picket signs to gain attention from university officials about teaching assistant cuts.
The march was organized by the Graduate Employees Union in response to at least 50 TAs who had received notice that they might not have positions in the fall because of the university's financial woes.
TAs don't know when they will be informed of their fates.
GEU President Scott Henkel said the quality of education at MSU will be diminished with the cuts.
"The quality of education at this university should be first priority," Henkel said.
TAs who attended the protest shared the concern of how the cuts would affect their ability to provide quality education to undergraduates.
"A lot of students say they would be lost without their TAs, especially in large lecture courses," said Allison Harvey, a TA in the Integrative Studies in the Arts and Humanities.
English sophomore Rickey Calleja took part in the march after one of his TAs promised his class extra credit for doing so. The undergraduate questioned the impact the march would have on administrators.
"In the end, it seems everything is just based on money," Calleja said.
The crowd snaked its way through campus, before rallying in front of the Administration Building.
The march also made a stop at Cowles House, the president's residence, where Henkel knocked on the door and waited until someone answered and took his delivery: a half-sheet flier urging students to contact the board of trustees about their concerns with the cuts.
There was no easy answer to the demands of the graduate employees, according to Bob Banks, assistant provost and vice president for academic human resources.
"One is trying to come out with a balance between modest tuition increases and the ability to sustain quality academic programs," Banks said. "It's not an enviable trade-off."
But preserving those jobs has to become a larger priority for administrators, said Deb Wilson, GEU president-elect and sociology TA.
"Some people say the TAs can't take more cuts," Wilson said. "I feel it's really the university that can't take any more cuts."
