Jan 13, 2015

We began with discussions about an upcoming interview with WPR regarding President Cross’s recent comments. We then discussed a new report on salaries and salary comparison with other institutions. We met with Mark Harris and Maria GJ and briefly discussed how to get “beyond the echo chamber” regarding communications with legislators, with it noted that general legislative dynamics will likely remain constant for the next decade. We followed up on our previous commitment to upgrade graduate student stipends and had some deep conversation about how to make this raise happen within the constraints of current austerity budgets. We remain committed to providing competitive positions to graduate students in recognition of their essential roles within the research and teaching of the university. We will be speaking with the administration about this issue, and will bring it up at the next Faculty Senate meeting. We have also decided to try to meet with UW-Madison’s UC with the goal of fostering better communications.