This article examines the reliance of U.S. campuses on international teaching assistants (ITA) for staffing undergraduate course and the strategies that may affect ratings of their speaking competence. This increasing reliance has led to student complaints about incomprehensibility of ITA. This problem has been examined by looking through the eyes of the students, administrators and taxpayers. Therefore, the responsibility had been placed on the ITA, whose burden it was to learn the language and culture more fully. The goal of having ITA learn the language and culture better was eclipsing another important issue that needs consideration, the issue of teaching assistant's feelings of loss of control over the students' perception about themselves.