You know the budget is in bad shape when the Teaching Assistants' Association is, in all likelihood, better off under the terms of their two-years-expired contract than the terms of any contract the Joint Committee on Employment Relations has talked about lately.
It's unfortunate that the some of the hardest-working people on campus--graduate students doubling as teachers for hundreds of classes across UW-Madison--are among the poorest paid in the state and facing cuts to their health care benefits. TAs and project assistants rightly receive tuition waivers, but for their efforts to shape the academic ambitions of many undergraduates, especially first- and second-year students, TAs on the typical 50 percent appointment are compensated with only about $10,500 a year. Not enough to pay the rent, let alone support a family as many graduate students must do on their meager income.
And despite talk of raising tuition to keep class sizes down, not a dollar of our tuition money would help fund the teaching assistants that keep UW-Madison running, lead the discussions that in fact result in smaller classes and maintain the level of prestige our degrees enjoy. The quality of graduate students also ensures that the university attracts the exceptional faculty we expect. TAs, along with hundreds of university employees and thousands of other contracted state workers, are funded directly from the state budget and subjected to the same prospective cuts facing agencies statewide.
The teaching assistants have been more than responsible, continuing to run classes without staging walkouts or strikes. They deserve back pay for the years they've worked without a contract and moreover, they deserve a contract that reflects their value in the university system, with pay raises reflecting the cost of living and sustained benefits.
