Public Representation Organization of the Faculty Senate, a membership organization consisting of UW-Madison faculty, has scheduled a march to the Capitol Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. in response to the budget repair bill.
The group will meet on Bascom Hill and join with UW Faculty Organizing for Change and the Teaching Assistants' Association in the march.
While it is not a union, PROFS is comprised of UW-Madison faculty who advocate for their rights before the governor, state legislators, members of Congress and members of the Board of Regents.
According to the TAA, the march could be a turning point in the protest of Gov. Scott Walker's bill, showing the city and the nation that some of the UW-Madison faculty wants to protect the collective bargaining rights of public sector workers.
333 UW-Madison faculty members signed a letter addressed to Walker, state legislators and citizens of Wisconsin, which was released Sunday. It states their support for collective bargaining rights for all workers.
Associate history professor William Jones signed the letter and said he supports the faculty's march to the Capitol.
""There are several aims [of the letter],"" Jones said. ""One is to register our support for the principal of collective bargaining as a right and as a democratic process that's been established both in the U.S. and around the world, as a fundamental human right.""
Members of PROFS said they are showing their solidarity with the tens of thousands of protestors who have filled the Capitol and the square voicing their protest of Walker's budget repair bill.
The march is meant to bring awareness to the repercussions that UW-Madison will feel if this bill is passed, according to the group.
The faculty members who signed the letter wanted to publically support the collective bargaining rights of the teaching assistants and staff on campus, Jones said.
PROFS, in support of the TAs' ongoing occupation of the Capitol, strives to emphasize the important role that the staff and graduate assistants have in maintaining the high standards of this university, according to the faculty-signed letter.
Members of PROFS said the staff and graduate assistants already have low wages and few benefits. The members said they are worried about the effects that additional cuts will have on their jobs and morale.
