SU community rallies against tax plan; grad students announce unionization drive

By Casey Darnell, Kennedy Rose, writers for The Daily Orange | Published on November 29, 2017

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Photo by HIeu Nguyen, Staff Photographer

Janet Flores, a senior geography major, stood in front of Hendricks Chapel on Wednesday, looking out at a shivering crowd of Syracuse University campus community members.

“When graduate students are under attack, what do we do?” Flores shouted, holding a megaphone.

“Stand up, fight back!” the crowd of more than 100 people responded, roaring in protest of a proposed tax plan that would force graduate students to pay thousands of dollars in extra income taxes, if passed.

SU students, faculty and staff on Wednesday denounced a push from Republican congressional leaders to count tuition remission — waivers on tuition fees universities give to student employees — as taxable income. This specific provision was included in a tax plan passed by the United States House of Representatives earlier this month.

At SU, 875 graduate students receive tuition waivers, according to a letter Chancellor Kent Syverud sent to the area’s congressman, Rep. John Katko (R-N.Y.).

“This is a travesty. This is a kick in the gut to the middle class,” said Scott Phillipson, president of the Service Employees International Union Local 200United.

Phillipson, a graduate of the SU College of Law, said tax provisions such as these waivers are the only way members of his union can afford to educate their children.

Maria Carson, a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the department of religion and an organizer for Syracuse Graduate Employees United, kicked off the rally and encouraged protesters to stay and learn how to become involved with the unionization process.

Syracuse Graduate Employees United, an organization trying to create a union for graduate employees at SU, officially announced a unionization drive during the rally.

SEIU Local 200United is helping Syracuse Graduate Employees United form a union for graduate employees, Carson said.

Dana Cloud, a professor in SU’s communication and rhetorical studies department and a member of the International Socialist Organization, said she fully supports Syracuse Graduate Employees United’s decision to unionize.

“History shows that unions are the only vehicle, really, that employees have to fight back against the employer’s offensive,” Cloud said.

Many protesters shivered outside Hendricks in the 40-degree Fahrenheit weather. Speakers apologized several times for the cold temperature, saying they expected it to be warmer like Tuesday was.

Some students held signs at the protest, one reading, “I can’t eat tuition credits.” Another read, “Equal access to education = no to GOP tax bill.”

Andre Habet, a doctoral student in the College of Arts and Sciences and an international student from Belize, said while international graduate students who travel to the U.S. for studies are lucky, they are still subject to racism, xenophobia and difficulties when facing the American tax and health care system.

Habet said he had feelings of guilt and shame, knowing he could return to Belize and make more money, or have more career options, than students who did not have an opportunity to study in the U.S.

“It has taken me eight years to move past this shame and recognize something: I am not grateful to this university for this opportunity,” Habet said. “The university should be grateful to us for making the sacrifices to attend here at great personal expense and to enrich the great body of knowledge produced and disseminated here.”

The crowd roared and booed at the mention of Katko, with one protester yelling, “Bum!” Katko voted in favor of the tax plan earlier this month, saying the majority of his constituents would receive tax cuts under the plan in an op-ed for Syracuse.com. Katko represents the 24th Congressional District, which encompasses Syracuse.

In a letter to Katko, sent last week, Syverud expressed concerns about the tax plan, saying it could make SU’s cost of attendance “out of reach” for many students and families, while entirely forcing graduate students out of higher education.

The tax plan could also profoundly affect SU employees, Syverud wrote, because many of them benefit from tuition waivers.

“This is the only way our members get to educate their kids — our members who clean these dorms, who cook the food, who cut the grass,” said Phillipson, of the local service employees union. “They don’t get a lot of money either.”

An email to the campus community on Wednesday from Vice Chancellor and Provost Michele Wheatly and Peter Vanable, dean of the Graduate School, reaffirmed the university’s position on the controversial tax plan.

“Chancellor Kent Syverud made clear the University opposes any tax measures that would harm our graduate students, faculty, and staff, and their families,” Wheatly said in the email.

Brandon Daniels, though, grabbed a megaphone at Wednesday’s protest and started chanting, “Hey, Syverud, you’re no good! Treat your workers like you should!” The crowd soon joined him.

Daniels, who is a Syracuse Graduate Employees United organizer, demanded the university offset lost income from the tax hike through stipend adjustments. He said SU has enough money to do so, and if every graduate student employee at the university demanded it, the school would be forced to.

“The amount of money we make for the university astronomically outweighs the amount of money they pay us,” Daniels said.

Members of Syracuse Graduate Employees United encouraged protesters to sign an online petition it’s circulating that demands the university release contingency plans to address the impact of the proposed tax legislation. More than 250 people had signed the petition as of Wednesday evening.

“If you want certainty in your life, you should join us,” Daniels said.