New Haven, Conn.

The one-sided nature of Kim Phillips-Fein's "Yale Bites Unions" [July 2] may be explained by the fact that she is a union organizer of graduate students at Columbia University, but that does not excuse her errors and misrepresentations. A few facts are in order: At Yale, those select few who enter the graduate school (10 percent of all who apply) are provided a minimum annual stipend of $13,700 for five years. Every PhD student also receives additional support that covers tuition for four years ($23,650 per year) and a comprehensive healthcare plan. Over five or six years of study, Yale invests more than $160,000 in each of these students.

During their years in the graduate program, students are expected to master the skills required to become leaders in an academic field, including subject expertise, research methods, writing and, yes, teaching. Future academic leaders must indeed spend a small part of their studies gaining classroom experience. At Yale, graduate students are typically expected to assist professors by teaching part time during two of their graduate student years. Two-thirds of graduate students at Yale are not doing any teaching at all in a typical semester.

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