Teaching Assistants' Association members voted Thursday to extend their ""teach out,"" calling for action on all University of Wisconsin campuses to cease holding class on campus through Sunday.
TAA member Magda Konieczna, a PhD student and teaching assistant in the School of Journalism, said after two hours of deliberation, members voted to continue the teach out with only one opposing vote.
""It was a very wide-ranging discussion, a lot of emotions,"" Konieczna said. ""A lot of people didn't know, coming in, how they would vote because we think it's very serious.""
The TAA is discouraging any activity on campus Friday and is asking professors and TAs to use their discretion to cancel, reschedule or hold classes off campus.
""We realize this is not the strongest action we could call for,"" the TAA wrote in a press release. ""We are calling for it because we do not want the learning to stop.""
Konieczna clarified that a teach out does not necessarily mean canceling discussion sections.
""We're not just saying ‘cancel classes'—that's why we're including rescheduling or holding them off campus,"" she said.
The TAA described its continuing protest as ""a sign of solidarity with our elected representatives who have left the state … and with the tens of thousands of people from around the state who continue to occupy the Capitol.""
According to Konieczna, approximately 6,000 people walked off 12 campuses across the state Thursday.
Konieczna said the TAA anticipates many more students and TAs will join in Friday's teach out.
In a letter to Chancellor Biddy Martin, the TAA requested she cancel UW-Madison classes Friday to ""stand in solidarity with striking public employees across the state"" against what they call the ""draconian provisions"" in Gov. Scott Walker's Budget Repair Bill.
UW-Madison has not yet officially canceled class in response to the controversial bill.
