WHAT: Rally to support grad students, and oppose the grad student tax

WHERE: Courtyard outside MacKenzie Hall, OHSU, 3181 SW Sam Jackson Park Road, Portland, OR 97238

WHEN: Wednesday, December 6, 2017, 12:00 – 12:30pm

Republicans in Congress have targeted graduate education, threatening to tax tuition waivers to pay for tax cuts for wealthy donors and corporations, making it difficult for innovative biomedical research to continue in the United States. Join grad students and supporters to defend research, education and outreach…

LEARN MORE: Scientists Press Senate to Preserve Higher Education Tax Provisions

LEARN MORE: OHSU Letter to the Conference Committee

LEARN MORE: Feeling stressed?

More from the graduate students at OHSU, many of whom contribute their time, expertise and energy in our public schools and community venues as outreach volunteers…

The Senate recently passed its tax reform bill meaning that the House and Senate will now work together on a conference committee to combine the two versions of the tax bill into a single bill designed to be passed by both houses of Congress. The House’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act contains a repeal of Section 117 (d), which makes graduate tuition tax-free, although the Senate version does not. If the tuition waivers that graduate students currently receive are considered taxable income, as they are in the House version of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, graduate school would become unattainable for many, if not most, students.  

The current average annual stipend for graduate students at OHSU is $30,000.  If tuition waivers are classified as taxable income, graduate students will see their taxes increase by at least 100%, and likely substantially more. Treating graduate student income as if it were $60-90,000 by removing the waiver would increase the tax burden so significantly that many students would be forced to drop out.  Additionally, based on their higher tax bracket, students would be ineligible for need-based aid.  But the impact of this policy change is even further reaching.  Without Section 117 (d), the ability to attract new students into Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers would be severely compromised and groundbreaking research interrupted.

The reconciliation of the tax bills begins this week, meaning that nothing is finalized yet.  There is still a chance that the final bill could include the repeal of Section 117 (d), which is where we come in.

Five things you can do right now!

1. Attend the rally!
2. Call and email Rep. Greg Walden* (southeastern Oregon).  He is a member of the Republican leadership, chair of the most powerful committee (Energy & Commerce), and also has the potential to be on the conference committee that will reconcile the two versions of the bill.
3. Call and email your U.S. Senator to ask that they continue to advocate for Section 117 (d)
4. Call and email your U.S. Representative
5. Sign our letter to the conference committee: OHSU Letter to the Conference Committee

• NOTE: Our graduate students brought brain research and art projects to students from SIX eastern Oregon counties last spring in La Grande, in Greg Walden’s congressional district, on an entirely volunteer basis. Learn more…

Blue Mountain Brains!

TAKE MORE ACTION: Register to vote in Oregon and Washington

LEARN MORE: What Calling Congress Achieves