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According to an article in the Wall Street Journal, more MBA graduates are going on to do good work, but just not in traditional non-profit arenas. While fewer than 5% of grads from top b-schools work in non-profit organizations straight out of school, many students are taking positions in social responsibility at Fortune 500 companies or working for companies that address environmental concerns, global poverty or energy access. So while MBA grads understand the importance of charity and social entrepreneurship, they also seek the financial security that does not necessarily come with non-profit work. According to the article, non-profit salaries can be as much as 33% below for-profit salaries. At the Yale School of Management, where 9% of its class of 2011 went into non-profit jobs, the average starting salary was $80,000 compared to $120,000 for those going into consulting. These socially-minded MBAs not only benefit financially from working at larger, multinational for-profit companies in a social responsibility role, but many feel they can make a greater impact with that broader scope.

Learning about how to derive the Black-Scholes formula in a 7:30 AM finance class is a challenging feat in itself; most students would rather not have to worry about understanding their teaching assistants English while theyre at it. Unfortunately, youve probably had similar experiences in classes taught by masters degree candidate TAs, and incidences such as these form the basis for establishing guidelines regarding English language proficiency in higher education.

Language proficiency is commonly defined as a persons ability to speak or perform in an acquired language. In order to evaluate an individuals abilities, the Test of English as a Foreign Language was established by the Educational Testing Service and is administered worldwide to measure the ability of people to employ college-level English in terms of listening, reading, speaking, and writing skills.

However, the burden of applying this standard through admission guidelines falls to individual states and universities. For instance, the University of Illinois at Chicago requires applicants whose native languages arent English to demonstrate above minimum scores on either the TOEFL or the exam of the International English Language Testing System within two years of application.

Similarly, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign non-native English speaking graduate students who are prospective teaching assistants are encouraged to demonstrate oral English proficiency prior to arriving on campus by meeting specific requirements on either the TOEFL or IELTS. The university also administers the Speaking Proficiency English Assessment Kit and an English proficiency interview on campus. Clearly, while the expectation is graduate students confirm language proficiency in advance, the university also evaluates them upon arrival.

Along with valid TOEFL or IELTS scores, the University of Buffalo requires all international students who have been awarded teaching assistantships to take the SPEAK test before class registration, or even in some cases prior to admission to a particular program. On the west coast, the University of California also requires either the TOEFL or IELTS.

Why all the fuss? Beginning in the 1990s, Penn State University considerably increased its employment of international teaching assistants and found attempts to promote ITA efficacy also required looking at barriers that might hinder communication. To minimize impediments, the University made the commonsensical stipulation that ITAs be sufficiently proficient in English to communicate clearly.

The university reasoned it was not fair to ITAs to place them, without excellent preparation, in situations in which teaching conventions and domestic students expectations may differ greatly from their earlier experiences. Additionally, undergraduates often come from communities lacking diversity, and it is not realistic to expect that all these students, especially when struggling to learn difficult course material, will automatically adjust to unfamiliar accents. Put another way, increasing numbers of ITAs meant greater necessity for English proficiency requirements for the sakes of students and TAs themselves.

In case you think this is solely an American issue, a study of English teachers in Iran found language competence to be the most important aspect among good teachers. It appears that regardless of whether teaching assistants are of native or foreign origin, fundamental language proficiency is not only desirable but essential. Of concern to institutions of higher learning is the welfare of both teaching assistants and the students trying to learn from them.

Do you think all College Teaching Assistants should have English qualifications?

The Occupy Wall Street movement has attracted thousands of people, with protesters setting up tents and facing arrests and physical altercations with police.

The Occupy FAU movement, however, has been a bit more low key.

An event Thursday attracted just five protesters, two of whom were holding up signs, proclaiming “Wake Up FAU” and “Take the Power Back. We Want Equality.”It was a lot quieter than an Oct. 13 rally, which drew about 100 people.

FAU student Gonzalo Vizcardo, one of the organizers, said the timing didn’t work out for many students because they were planning to attend a 4 p.m. Occupy march in Miami and couldn’t make the FAU event, which was held about 12:30 p.m.

The Occupy FAU movement, like similar ones on other Florida campuses, voices concerns about such issues as budget cuts, big tuition hikes and faculty pay. The movement has some faculty support, although none attended Thursday’s protest.

“It’s us the 99 percent, the students who pay for the university and the faculty who teach the classes that do the actual work at a university,” Vizcardo said. “It’s not high level administrators, the governor or people in Tallahassee.”