Mark Harris (Interim Vice Provost for Research) visited, and we talked about the lack of movement on TA and PA support (there has been only a 1% increase in TA salaries due to budgetary constraints). We broke down the average TA subsidy:  TA = $13,000 average salary / $11,000 tuition / $3,000  fringes =  roughly $27,000

It isn’t really clear what State support is and what tuition support is for the general TA budget line. Mark Harris suggested that it will cost about $3 million to bring the stipends up to a point where we are at a nationally competitive level. He suggested that this is less than one might think. The rates are insultingly low at this point. The graduate stipend rate is one of our big challenges for both top tier research as well as undergraduate teaching. How can we clarify the budgetary procedures in order to stabilize our graduate enrollments? We estimate that there are over 1,000 TAs on campus, so this is clearly a significant issue.

We also spoke about the loss of extramural funding when highly funded faculty are recruited elsewhere and leave.