Syracuse University is new to me, but I know it has a high reputation as an academic institution and has the highest tuition in the state of New York. Last week one of the department’s reputation started melting before my eyes after a teaching assistant defined the ‘to render’ function on the Final Cut Pro video software as, ‘It’s when a computer is thinking ‘What the F@#k?” The other TA addressed me with, ‘I don’t like when people are turned to me with their butts when I talk to them’ while I was logging off from the computer. (Later in the letter, I will refer to cussing as ‘casual communication.’)

Additionally I was discouraged to ask questions related to the software after I had only two. Passionately, but without raising the voice, I explained that my family pays a lot of money for the class and I cannot leave the lab with no knowledge in my head and, as a result, fail the multimedia project. This effort of being vocal was evaluated as a rude way of talking to a TA.

Finally, in a subtle way, I was asked to pick another lab TA, which I understood as me being unwanted in the class next time. I nodded during the critique and kept quiet because the person could barely hide the anger and because I did not want the dialogue to become nasty barking back and forth like in ‘The Apprentice’ television show. But I left with a strong opinion that students should not be treated like dogs or Marines on drill. And I can absolutely understand if a new teacher is initially not from an academic environment and comes from a profession in which casual communication is a norm, but it should not be a norm to use inappropriate words in the classroom as part of teaching or communication or to display anger.

Someone can argue that anger is part of human nature, but I always thought that in academia, teachers are of high integrity and try to help a student instead of picking up frustration and fighting back. Now I am left with a number of questions: What is the value of the teacher who is overly casual in communication or treats students poorly? What is the value of the department that does not instruct new teachers to use literary language in the classroom and develop professional ethics? What is the value of the university that charges roughly $3,000 per class and tolerates poor customer service?

Elza Orozalieva

Non-matriculate photojournalism student