L&S Graduate Affairs Community

The L&S Graduate Affairs Community was established by L&S Administration to bring together those across the College who work with graduate students. We aim to provide timely information and training, answer your questions, support you in your work, and build a community of professionals who can help and support each other.

WE WANT YOUR IDEAS! Please send questions or suggestions for this KB or meeting topics to Lynne Prost, Assistant Dean for Graduate Student Academic Affairs or Laura Fisk, HR Associate Director for Student Assistants.

Graduate Affairs Overview KB Page

The L&S Graduate Student Affairs (Main Overview) KB page was created to offer a high-level overview of policies and KB articles relevant to Graduate Affairs in L&S.

L&S Graduate Coordinators Email List

To receive email updates related to graduate issues in L&S, subscribe to our Google Group by emailing: ls_gradcoords+subscribe@g-groups.wisc.edu 

All L&S Graduate Program Coordinators/Directors and anyone else interested in L&S graduate affairs are welcome to join the list.

Email list communications
Date Sent Topic and Link to Email Text
Jan 17, 2024 Reminder: L&S Teaching Mentor Nominations due Feb 13
Jan 8, 2024 Reminder: L&S TA Training Spring 2024
Dec 12, 2023 L&S TA Trainings Spring 2024
Dec 5, 2023 Seeking Nominations for 2024 L&S Teaching Mentors
Nov 6, 2023 Reminder: Campus-Wide TA Awards
Oct 5, 2023 Campus-Wide TA Awards
Aug 11, 2023 Final Reminder - L&S TA Training
July 25, 2023 Delta's Research Mentor Training
July 18, 2023 L&S TA Appointments and Workloads
July 6, 2023 L&S TA Training Fall 2023

Communications from Academic Year 2022-2023

Note that TLA also maintains a Communications from L&S Teaching & Learning Administration KB that includes all emails sent from TLA to chairs, directors, and department administrators. 

L&S Graduate Affairs Community Microsoft Teams Channel

The Teams channel provides an informal mechanism for communicating with others across L&S who work in graduate affairs. This may include asking for advice, sharing resources, etc. To join the Teams channel, navigate to the “Teams” tab within Microsoft Teams, select the button “Join or create a team,” and enter the following code: dp9grhj

Please respect the following guidelines when posting in Teams. Messages that do not adhere to the guidelines will be deleted by a team owner.

  • Be respectful and courteous in all messages.

  • Consider these messages public and DO NOT share any information that might be considered sensitive or private. Please email Lynne Prost and/or Laura Fisk directly if you need to discuss anything involving a student’s sensitive or private information.

L&S Graduate Affairs Community Meetings

These meetings provide opportunities for L&S Admin to share timely information related to graduate student policies and practices in L&S. They also provide space for discussion and sharing of ideas among graduate affairs professionals. Meetings take place on Zoom and recordings will be posted here.

Grad Affairs Community Meeting Details
Date Topic, Registration, & Downloadable Materials Description
May 10, 2022

Community overview & TA Training

To register after May 4, email teach.learn@ls.wisc.edu 

The meeting will provide: 

  • an overview of the new L&S Graduate Affairs Community, including opportunities for you to provide input

  • a summary of the L&S TA Training format and content

  • a discussion of how L&S and departments can coordinate their TA training efforts

Prior to hosting these meetings, we presented twice at L&S Admin Topic of the Month. Information from those presentations can be found below:

L&S Admin Topic of the Month Meeting Details
Date Topic & Downloadable Materials Description
March 24, 2022

Graduate Assistants 102: TA workloads and Performance Management

This follow-up to last month's Grad Assistants 101 took a deeper look at three of the items the attendees expressed interest in: TA workloads, TA performance management, and L(SA) professional development.  This meeting provided:

  • TA workload reference sheet 

  • Recommendations for writing and reviewing TA workloads

  • TA performance management best practices

  • Details on L(SA) professional development plans

Feb 24, 2022

Graduate Assistants 101: Best Practice and Resources

Graduate Assistants have a mix of employment and academic considerations unlike any other group of employees. This meeting provided:

  • summary of how paid leave works and a Paid Leave quick reference sheet 

  • quick reference sheet of helpful L&S KB’s regarding Graduate Assistants 

  • creative strategies and options for covering for absent TA’s 

  • summary of areas in which Lynne and Laura can provide support

  • ideas for managing performance challenges in these appointments



Keywordsgraduate affairs, grad affairs, graduate student, graduate assistant, TA, teaching assistant ls   Doc ID118042
OwnerLynne P.GroupL&S KB
Created2022-04-19 09:42:34Updated2024-01-17 15:50:00
SitesL&S KB
CleanURLhttps://kb.wisc.edu/ls-graduate-affairs-community
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