John Karl Scholz, dean of the College of Letters and Science where nearly all the faculty assistants work, declined to comment through a campus spokesperson.

Different pay to teaching assistants in different fields — possible for the first time under the restructured pay plan for graduate student assistants that goes into effect this summer — led the union representing them to oppose the plan, despite the pay increase.

Goldberg said that there is growing concern on campus about salary inequities. “I think it’s worsened in recent years because of a lack of ways to address it.” For example, campus administrators have used pay increases to keep some faculty members from being lured to other universities in recent years, but cuts in state funding have prevented them from evening out pay levels among colleagues, he said.

Their jobs may not be a recruiting tool, but UW still has plenty of reasons to raise their pay to make it practicable to stay on the job, faculty assistants say.