Six representatives from the Graduate Student Association leave
for Washington D.C. today to lobby legislators for a bill that
would make academic fellowships and scholarships tax exempt.
On Thursday, more than 90 students from university campuses
across the nation will be going into offices of members of the
Senate and House of Representatives to gather support for the
bill.
The University of California has the largest contingent of
participants and will be delivering a letter of support for
allowing more favorable tax treatment for students receiving aid,
said Chris Harrington, a UC press aide who works with university
lobbying efforts in Washington, D.C.
Many GSA representatives said they realized the financial impact
of the taxes and would put in their best efforts to get the bill
passed.
GSA Director of Elections Melanie Ho said she believes taxes on
fellowships and scholarships pose significant financial constraints
on many graduate students.
Graduate students have expenses that are barely being met by the
stipends, said Dennis Tyler, GSA vice president of Academic
Affairs.
“To have these stipends taxed is unreasonable,” he
added.
The lobby day is organized by the Coalition for an Affordable
and Accessible Graduate Education and has support from various
groups including the National Association of Professional-Graduate
Students and the UC Student Association.
Since last year, the coalition has been gathering support and
encouraging students and graduate councils across the country to
join in its lobbying efforts.
Student efforts on previous trips to Washington, D.C. have been
primarily targeted at seeing the feasibility of having legislation
and securing sponsors, said Hanish Rathod, GSA vice president of
External Affairs and a board member of UCSA.
Rathod said although several legislators have shown interest in
sponsoring the bill, none have yet expressed commitment.
“Our goal this time is to secure final sponsors and get
the bill to be introduced on the floor,” he said.
In 1986, Congress passed a resolution eliminating tax exemptions
for graduate scholarship aid. Lobbyists are advocating for a bill
that would reverse the elimination.
The current lobbying efforts have also been receiving increasing
support from the university community, including the American
Council of Education, Council of Graduate Schools and Association
of American Universities.
“They’re starting to mobilize their own forces to
join in lobbying efforts, and we’re hoping that others might
be joining in as well,” said Alik Widge, NAGPS legislative
concerns chairman and coordinator of the campaign.
In addition, Stanford University and the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology have offered their own lobbyists in Washington, D.C
to help with the effort.
Widge said he hopes with more forces joining in and the draft
language under revision, the bill can be introduced and passed in
the near future.
Once the bill is introduced, university campuses can start
campaigning by calling up their respective Senators and Congressmen
to push for the bill, said Dorothy Kim, GSA vice president of
Internal Affairs.
Kim, who is also going on the trip, also said GSA is planning to
run a series of tax workshops in April to help graduate students
deal with their tax issues.
“Many graduate students I’ve talked to don’t
even know that their fellowships and scholarships are
taxable,” she said.
Kim added that if the bill providing tax exemptions was passed,
the workshops would be much simpler because students “would
then only have to deal with straightforward issues” rather
than taxes on their fellowships and scholarships.