Graduate Students Mobilize ‘to Stop Something That Can Ruin Us’

Courtesy of Hannah Khoddam

Senate Republicans are expected to bring their tax-reform proposal to a vote this week, but the House Republicans’ plan — passed on November 16 — already has graduate students hustling nationally to protest.

At the head of their complaints is a change that would tax graduate students for the value of tuition waivers they receive. The students have told local reporters and written columns for national publications saying that the change would be catastrophic to higher education, putting a strain on current students and building financial barriers to future ones.

The Chronicle has reported that taxes for some graduate students could climb by hundreds, and in some cases thousands, of dollars.

Graduate students at more than 50 public and private universities in 30 states will spend part of Wednesday rallying to draw attention to what they perceive as the continued negligence of — though some have called it an attack on — the nation’s higher-education system.

The burden to defend their studies, they said, is theirs to carry. At Ohio State University, Noah Charles, a doctoral student in physics, said dozens of graduate students met on November 8, when the House’s plan was still being considered. By the 10th, they were reaching out to their peers at other institutions, and by the 13th they had held a march.

Why the rush? “People recognize there’s an opportunity to stop something that can ruin us,” Mr. Charles told The Chronicle.

He said he would probably have to accelerate his studies if the measure, as passed by the House, became law. The Senate Republicans’ tax plan would leave the tuition waiver untaxed, but in the event the Senate passes its own version of the legislation, the differences would be hashed out in a conference committee — an opportunity for the taxed-waivers provision to re-emerge.

The students’ efforts thus far have included circulating a petition that calls on the Senate to reject the House version and planning walkouts or grade-ins — essentially, sit-ins but with graduate students doing their academic work. Some students have also opened a social-media campaign in which they posted pictures of themselves holding signs describing their field of study and what they do for their universities.

On the Facebook page for the planned protests, the graduate students and their supporters work together in plain view. One person posted a guide on how to write letters to local newspapers. Another solicited advice for witty phrases to put on protest signs. (“Defend NOT Defund Grad Students” was one of the few suggested.)

‘The Dream Career’

Most notable, however, is the steady stream of people announcing their plans to participate in some manner. On the Tuesday before Thanksgiving, people at little more than a dozen institutions said they planned to participate, said an organizer, Hannah Khoddam. A week later, that number had swelled to more than 50.

Fueling that fast mobilization is a survival instinct both individual and collective. A tax on waivers could make graduate education unaffordable for many on already tight stipends, and could upend their career plans.

Students said that making it more expensive to pursue a graduate-level education would mean only the richest could afford it. They also said the Republican tax plan was yet another devaluation of higher education from a political party already skeptical of academe.

The effort is being embraced even by graduate students who may have less to lose in the short term. Ms. Khoddam, a clinical-psychology student at the University of Southern California, said she was on the final legs of her program, but she still felt the need to protest the tax plan because higher education is a valuable use of time.

“Many graduate students are also very motivated to combat the idea that graduate students ‘need a real job’ and are just wasting our time before going out into the real world,” Ms. Khoddam told The Chronicle. “Combating that narrative is no small feat, and I feel like this movement hopefully is a step in the right direction.”

Guy Aldridge, a doctoral student in history at the University of Maryland at College Park, entered graduate school with the understanding his finances would be tight for a while but with the hope of eventually landing a faculty position.

He said if he were taxed on the tuition that was waived, he would have to consider a new career. And that, he said, would throw into doubt the five years since he earned his bachelor’s degree.

“I wanted nothing more than to research and write,” said Mr. Aldridge. “It was the dream career. It has taken me all over the country and all over the world.”

His story is similar to those being shared nationally. An international student at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities told the Minnesota Daily, “If the tuition waiver doesn’t exist, you can’t [afford] to study here.” A student at the University of Pennsylvania said the proposal would spur an economic anxiety that “would prevent many of us from completing our studies.” A graduate student at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology wrote in The New York Times that she would have to choose between “medical expenses and my education.”

In such an environment, the graduate-student organizers have had little trouble finding people to protest the proposed policy.

“It’s not like we’re having to work really hard to get people out of their offices and out of their labs,” Mr. Aldridge said. “We’re just stepping back.”

Chris Quintana is a breaking-news reporter. Follow him on Twitter @cquintanadc or email him at chris.quintana@chronicle.com.