From the House to the Senate! ​Trump's Tax Plan = 20% Pay Cut for Grad Employees

Please don't sign a tax bill that will penalize grad students who have their tuition waved. It will severely hurt the prospects of the US maintaining its position as a leader in higher education

We are barely paid enough to afford the cost of living in New Jersey as it is. Every year rent goes up and our pay does not rise at all, much less to keep up with the cost of living in the area. We literally cannot afford this.

Dear Representatives, I strongly urge you to reconsider passing this bill. I am an extremely hard-working graduate student who is studying clinical neuroscience with hopes to one day help people who have devastating mental illnesses, such as Alzheimer's and Schizophrenia. Our current stipends barely cover our living expenses, which is sufficient because we do this work out of passion and sense of societal duty. However, if our salaries were effectively cut by 20% (noted in the larger AAUP letter), it would make our already humble lives quite difficult. Please consider what is at stake when a student such as myself might need to reconsider her research path and/or take on supplementary work to reconcile the pay cut (to be able to afford basic necessities such as food, room, and board). I would like to continue working as hard as I can and focusing all of my time, thoughts, and energy on the difficult problems I mentioned above. I implore you to stand with us and oppose these cuts. Thank you and have a nice day. Regards, C. Cocuzza

Trying your best to fair to people is not an option, it is an obligation. This bill is not fair.

Higher education fuels economic growth and prosperity. This tax bill would prevent Americans from pursuing higher graduation and would cripple our ability to make advances in medicine, science, and other critical industries.

Do not pass the bill! That totally discourages U.S future for the academic intellectuals

As a student in the English Department at Rutgers, this would impact my livelihood and the quality of education that I would be able to provide for my students.

NO TAX ON TUITION REMISSION

Thanks for the work done by our union.

NO TAX ON TUITION REMISSION

Outrageous!

This tax plan promises to strike a devastating blow to higher education when it has become a dire necessity economically for both graduate and undergraduate students and at a time where facts have been abandoned for lies that help the few and disadvantage and harm the many.

It's hard to think of a tax plan MORE regressive than the usual GOP ideas, but this somehow managed to top them all. This is horrifyingly bad idea that would essentially limit higher education to the wealthy.

First was the EPA budget cut, then NSF, now congress wants to completely eliminate research by preventing the students to attend graduate school! how pathetic!?!

This is ridiculous. Graduate students do not need any more bills/taxes. A remission cannot be made into a liability.

What in the hell is this tax bill?

The effects of this tax plan should it be enacted would transform academia making it white and more privileged than it currently is. Congress should be working to eliminate barriers to diversity in science, not creating them.