When Jambul Akkaziev relinquished his role as a teaching assistant to become a faculty assistant at UW-Madison, with the new title came a 15 percent reduction to his pay.
“I was doing the same job,” said Akkaziev. “I was teaching a variety of classes in the same program, but I was simply no longer a student.”
According to United Faculty and Academic Staff and faculty assistant representatives, experienced UW-Madison faculty assistants are currently paid $31,292, while the 2017-’18 pay rate of a senior TA is $36,856.
UW-Madison faculty assistant and UFAS representatives attended an Associated Students of Madison Coordinating Council meeting Wednesday night to ask for student endorsement in demanding an immediate $5,000 pay raise.
Faculty assistants want their minimum pay to be equivalent to that of UW-Madison TAs.
Chad Goldberg, president of UFAS, said he considers the $5,000 pay raise a “relatively easy demand for administration to do.”
According to the representatives at the meeting, UW-Madison will need to spend $150,000 to adjust all faculty assistant salaries to be equivalent to TA’s minimum salary. This adjustment would be .00005 percent of UW-Madison’s annual budget.
Akkaziev said that for years university administration has been “benefitting from us being indentured servants,” but he said many are afraid to speak out because of the risk of losing their jobs.
In response, Vice Chancellor for Finance and Administration Laurent Heller said the university administration appreciates the contributions faculty assistants make to campus’ mission.
“We are analyzing the faculty assistant compensation issue and are consulting with schools and colleges on campus that employ them to determine what we can do on this important issue," Heller said.
According to Goldberg, endorsements from ASM, Faculty Senate and University Staff is a method to pressure administration, as well as a means to raise awareness about the gap in university salaries.
“Part of the issue in why it has been ignored for so long is because no one knows about it,” he said. “But unless there’s pressure, nothing gets done.”
While UFAS has yet to draft the resolution, Akkaziev said that the $5,000 amount is the bare minimum of what they will accept.
“We’re not going to compromise and we are not looking for a patchwork solution,” Akkaziev said. “We’re only looking for equity, and we won’t settle for anything less.”