Camped out at the Capitol in a room strewn with backpacks and sleeping bags, surrounded by signs with caricatures of Gov. Scott Walker and reminders to keep the peace, the Teaching Assistants' Association called for a general assembly meeting Sunday.
At the meeting, the TAA decided to resume classes Monday, but said it will hold another teach-out Tuesday to protest the reconvening of the state Assembly.
The TAA, the nation's oldest graduate student workers' union, represents approximately 3,000 graduate students at UW-Madison and opposes the proposed budget repair bill because of its limitations on unions' collective bargaining rights.
Members of the union expressed fear that if their right to collectively bargain on anything but wages were taken away, it would lead to the end of tuition remission at UW-Madison.
Tuition remission, which is considered a benefit, is the waiving of tuition for graduate students who teach or do research at the university.
""It enables the university to recruit top-tier graduate students,"" TAA member Jill Hopke said. ""The majority of us would not be able to come here unless we had tuition remission.""
In an e-mail to UW-Madison graduate students Saturday, Provost Paul DeLuca said the bill would not affect tuition remission and the university recognizes how critical it is to keep the university competitive.
But members of the TAA said the university cannot make such a promise because decisions regarding tuition remission are made by the state.
Mike Mirer, a masters student in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, said he is worried he will be forced to leave the state if the bill passes.
Mirer and his wife, who is pursuing her PhD in genealogy, both work as research assistants in the School of Medicine, and had a baby in July.
""This is a $65-a-week pay decrease for us,"" Mirer said. ""This is going to be rough for us. Every dollar that comes in already has a destination.
""I chose to come back to school. I'm not looking for sympathy, but I want to better myself and be able to be a contributor in the 21st Century. I don't know if it is going to be possible going beyond this.""
Some undergraduate students, however, said they felt frustrated with TAs' decisions to cancel or relocate classes.
""We pay a lot to go here and we put a lot of effort into our work so we would expect the same thing back,"" sophomore Katie Herman said. ""It's not like they have so many classes a day. They still have time to go express their political ideas after class.""
