By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
A provision in the House version of proposed federal tax bill to tax graduate students on the value of their tuition waivers, and that could be devastating for those students.
The tax plan has passed both the House and the Senate, and now a conference committee is hashing out the difference in those two bills. The Senate removed the provision about taxing graduate school waivers, which they receive in recognition of the work they do on campus. It stayed in the House bill, however, prompting protests from around the country.
President Mary Ellen Mazey told the Bowling Green State University Faculty Senate that’s she’s been actively lobbying legislators both on her own and through other higher education groups, to remove the provision. She sees signs that the new tax will be excised from the budget. “We’re moving in the right direction.”
U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R-Bowling Green) has signed onto a letter that calls for the waivers to remain tax-free, according to his communications director Drew Griffin. Latta has expressed his concerns about the provision to U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who is on the conference committee, Griffin said.
Dean of the Graduate College Margaret Booth said she has not seen the final language so she’s not celebrating yet. To tax tuition waivers would be “would be extremely detrimental to graduate education across the United States.”
Those affected at BGSU are hopeful on two fronts. As the original tax was worded, it’s possible that graduate student here would not be affected. Back in 2010, Booth said, the university “changed the way we financed graduate assistants.” Instead of bundling everything together, the financial aid was deemed a scholarship. Students get those scholarships, instead of tuition waivers, because of the research or teaching work they provide or for academic excellence.
Booth said this was done with just this kind of scenario in mind.
Scott Chappuis, president of Graduate Student Senate, said he first heard of the proposed tax revision back in early November and was concerned. He said he had been hopeful that the Trump Administration would not take actions detrimental to students. But this proposal, as well as the prospect of the elimination of the public service loan forgiveness program in the Higher Education Bill, which is up for renewal in the next few months, has made him wary.
Graduate students, Chappuis said, are in no position to take any sort of financial hit. What they receive in stipends would put them below the poverty line if they received them over 12, instead of nine months.
Last year a change in the payment calendar left them without checks in December, sending some grad students to food banks. That’s been corrected for this year.
Chappuis said graduate degrees are increasingly required. For many jobs a bachelor’s degree has become like a high school diploma. Workers need to get a graduate degree to set themselves apart.
He said even if BGSU grad students were to be spared, he is determined to advocate for all graduate students.
Booth said the proposed tax change threatens the foundations of graduate education in the United States.
“What our graduate assistants contribute to campus is so much more than what they’re getting paid,” she said. With them, the university would end up hiring more part-time instructors. That would lessen the “quality control” over instruction, she said. With graduate assistants “we know we’re training them in what they’re teaching. It’s an education experience for them.”
Through graduate education “we’re not only training next generation of academicians and researchers, we’re training the next level of applied scientists in industries. Not all going to be professors. Our doctoral student and master’s students are high level researchers.”
The letter signed by Latta also opposes the proposal to tax tuition benefits provided by employers to workers and their children. That would include tuition benefits for faculty, administration, and staff at BGSU.
