Following a bargaining session involving the Office of State Employee Relations, University of Wisconsin contract negotiators and the Teaching Assistants’ Association Monday, UW officials said the state’s offer exceeds the median for peer university salaries and that they wish to avoid a strike if possible.

“We’ve put what we consider a fair offer on the table,” UW Vice Chancellor of Administration Darrell Bazzell said.

The latest offer made available for TAA approval was a 4.6 percent average raise in salaries while keeping monthly health-care co-payments of $9 for individuals and $22.50 for families.

TAA membership denied acceptance of this proposal in Monday’s general meeting.

Bazzell said the offer would raise UW’s status from 3.5 percent below the median of the peer group to 1.1 percent more than comparable universities offer TAs and project assistants.

According to Bazzell, OSER and the Wisconsin Legislature compare UW to a peer group that he describes as a list of universities with similar qualities to those of a state-run research university.

“The question we tried to answer in the study (to find a list of peer institutions) was, who’s most like us?” Bazzell said. “Who are the other major research institutions in the country that we would compare ourselves with?”

The peer group list includes all public Big Ten institutions, excluding the University of Iowa and Pennsylvania State University, and also includes the University of California-Berkeley, UCLA, the University of Texas-Austin and the University of Washington-Seattle.

Phil Certain, dean of the College of Letters and Science, said the list of peer institutions has existed for more than 25 years as a “benchmark” legislators use for comparison.

The TAA members do not agree with this current list, Certain added.

Certain and Bazzell said TAA members changed several of the universities in the list to include Iowa and Penn State and also included different methods of state compensation, such as segregated fees.

The UW officials also maintain that using a median is a more effective way of determining equitable compensation than looking at a mean, as the TAA does to bargain.

“The average salary [is usually bargained] around the median of a peer group,” director of OSER Karen Timberlake said.

The additional money put on the table came mainly out of reserves the university put away to compensate for further budget cuts.

“We got involved … given the importance of the issue and the importance of TAs to this campus,” Bazzell said. “We stepped forward and did some additional belt-tightening so we could make additional dollars on the table.”

Bazzell said the money put toward bargaining took away any cushion for anticipated cuts to UW funding, but the dollars were not taken away from UW departments, schools or colleges.

Although Bazzell said the funding does not affect the functioning of the university right now, he still expects budget cuts in the future.

UW officials said university assistance to maintain a no-monthly-premium health-care system was discussed. Representatives from the state Legislature and governor’s office have said they believe it should be the responsibility of state employees to contribute in some way for health care.

A group of about 12 students gathered in a Humanities building classroom Tuesday to show their support for the TAA and to plan student actions, such as skipping class, writing letters to local newspapers and asking students who have campus jobs not to go to work during the planned TAA walkout days of April 27 and 28.

Several student organizations, such as the Student Labor Action Coalition and the International Socialist Organization, as well as more than 16 UW departments, are demonstrating their support for the TAA and their battle for a no-cost health-care option.

“We believe insurance is a right,” a TAA leader close to the negotiations said. “We believe the state should be providing insurance for all state employees.”

The leader added the TAA takes an ideological stance opposite of state lawmakers, meaning the TAA would be willing to accept a smaller raise than the 4.6 proposed in order to receive the no-cost health-care option.

“It’s costing [the university] more money,” to withhold health care, he said, adding that the TAA demand without health care would approximate a 13 percent salary hike.

He said he has seen TAA members worry about health care’s role in the future of UW, and that he believes the quality of the graduate student employees attracted to the university would lessen because he feels health-care costs would continue to increase.

The TAA has also considered a grade strike, meaning TAA members would withhold final grades from UW administrators.

“If they do withhold grades, [the TAA argument says] it might affect some students, but (we feel) it will affect a whole bunch of students in some way,” Certain said.

Though UW freshman Elizabeth Gokey and senior Kevin Prosen, both members of the ISO, feel the grade strike will affect them in some way, they feel the TAA should have the right to do so to get what they consider a “fair contract.”

Prosen said instead of putting blame on the TAA and its membership, students should reprimand the state.

“A grade strike might be an inconvenience right now but not [a problem] in the long run,” Gokey said.

The TAA leader hinted there could be as many as two bargaining sessions with the state before Monday’s union membership meeting, which would be the last time to call off the two-day work action.