The teaching assistant is a vital position in any Penn State course--they have the all-important but never-heralded task of writing exams, grading papers, and sending out information to their students.

When something goes wrong in the grade book or feedback on assignments is slow to get back to students, the TA catches the heat.

I understand that the sheer volume of tests and papers makes life difficult, but from my experience, there is no excuse for failing to understand and execute the simple tasks a TA needs to perform.