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March 2007 Newsletter
Priscilla Thain, Newsletter Editor
Faculty from throughout the university have been making it clear in recent months that tuition remission is a major issue confronting the university. Consequently, PROFS has been working to see if there might be a legislative solution to the issue.
The Report of the Tuition Remission Task Force concluded that due to the increasing cost of tuition and the many demands on the funds that have been providing a substantial portion of the tuition remission of graduate assistants, department budgets would have to provide $8,000 per graduate assistant per year. This is a substantial increase from the prior 25% of the assistant’s stipend. This surcharge applies only to Project and Research Assistants, not to Teaching Assistants.
The deficit has grown since in-state tuition for graduate teaching assistants was remitted in 1997 through the TAA contract. In addition, the ceiling, the amount of the remitted tuition by law that does not have to be made up, has not increased sufficiently. Furthermore it is unclear whether increasing the ceiling would help, as the university budget has not increased.
The increased cost to departments is a problem in part because research grants are available unevenly across disciplines. Humanities, the arts, and some social science fields often have smaller and fewer granting agencies which are unable to fund large tuition remissions. The report of the Tuition Remission Task Force recommended monitoring for impacts of the additional costs and working to find a more durable solution to the budget issues.
PROFS leaders have been meeting with representatives of the Council for Affordable Public Education (CAPE), made up of graduate assistants from the Teaching Assistants Association (TAA) and other groups that are concerned with this problem. They have met with UW-Madison administrators, members of the Tuition Remission Task Force, and also Karen Timberlake, the Director of Employment Relations, at the Department of Administration (DOA). The DOA people said they were aware of the problem, and that it would result in fewer project and research graduate assistants whose tuition can be remitted.
Attracting the best graduate assistants by remitting their tuition is important to faculty’s ability to win grants and also attract new faculty. PROFS will continue to keep this issue in the fore front and search for a possible legislative solution.
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