This is very odd. I know universities can be very liberal places, but where did this combination of &quot;mandatory&quot; and &quot;student-run&quot; come from? I&#x27;m actually in favour of flattening hierarchies - but not inverting them. Why should students barely out of high school get to dictate the behaviour of teaching assistants who may be up to 40 years their senior? Why should the power relationships be temporarily inverted like that?