We met with Chancellor Lovell and talked in fairly general terms about the budget and our endorsement of a pay increase for Graduate Assistants so that we are somewhat competitive in the market and more fair to the students. As always, the question is “Where do we find the money?” though the UC is unanimous in prioritizing this issue and advocating for it at Faculty Senate.

We also discussed procedures for efficient handling and research infrastructure for the use of biological agents.

Provost Britz joined us and spoke about the problems of faculty retention and the number of highly productive colleagues who are being aggressively recruited from UWM. We also discussed the “tuition plateau,” meaning the amount of credits one is able to take as a full time student. A model where credits all cost the same amount as opposed to the current system of categories is worth exploring.