February 24, 2003

Dear Senator/Delegate,

We are writing in response to the suggestion by the Department of Legislative Services that the State of Maryland supposedly can save millions of dollars by denying graduate assistants tuition remission at the University of Maryland. This assessment is unrealistic. The abolition of tuition remission will fail to generate revenue streams for the State of Maryland. Rather than saving money the execution of this proposal would actually result in higher costs for teaching and research, destroy the ability of the graduate school to compete with its peers, degrade the quality of undergraduate education, and devastate many of your constituents.

Destroying the Graduate School and Undergraduate Education Every peer institution of the University of Maryland provides tuition remission to its graduate employees. The University would be unable to attract the best minds from around the world to teach our children and to conduct the research that will create the jobs of tomorrow. Rather than coming to Maryland, competitive graduate students will accept offers of the many excellent universities that do offer tuition remission. If it is possible to attract graduate employees to the University of Maryland at all then Maryland students would have to settle for bottom of the barrel instructors. As a result, the ranking of Maryland’s graduate school would collapse and the value of graduate and undergraduate degrees of our Alma Mater would deteriorate.

Higher Costs for Teaching and Research Graduate employees are the most efficient labor force on campus. It is a conservative estimate that graduate employees generate 25% of the university’s budget. The typical graduate employee carries officially between 50 and 75% of a professor’s workload. Some of us spend as much as sixty hours a week at working for a job that only compensates us for twenty. In many departments, graduate assistants teach most freshman and sophomore courses. This means we are often the first face of the university for many incoming students. In addition, the University of Maryland raises millions of dollars in research grants every year. None of the grant proposals that fetch all this money can be executed without the labor of graduate students. In return for teaching and research Maryland’s graduate employees typically receive between $10,000-$12,000 a year. Replacing graduate assistants with faculty instructors and researchers will cost between $42,000 and several hundred thousand dollars per position.

Devastating Constituents Given their income between $10,000 and $12,000, obviously, graduate employees will be hard pressed to raise tuition and fees of almost $10,000 per year. Most graduate employees pursue academic careers, which provide a lot of benefits but not riches. At the University of Maryland, for example, a typical professor has a starting salary around $42,000. Therefore, graduate employees are not in a position to accumulate large debts in pursuit of their degrees. Many of the most talented teachers and researchers at the University of Maryland come to Maryland from all over the world and do not have access to student loans or other types of credit. Most of us would have to either terminate our graduate education or transfer to one of the many excellent institutions that do provide tuition remission. Even those of your constituents who can preserve their graduate education by transferring will pay a high price as their research agendas and their personal relationships are disrupted.

It is wishful thinking that most graduate employees will hand over 80% of their annual income to the state treasury. Rather than generating money for the state treasury the cut of tuition remission will result in a mass exodus of graduate employees from the university system. The abolition of tuition remission will deplete the intellectual capital of the state without contributing to the resolution of the budget crisis in a meaningful way.

The University makes millions of dollars on the backs of its graduate employees. They can do so because we love what we do. We love our students. We love teaching. We love our research. Therefore, we have put up with insufficient pay, overpriced university services, and poor working conditions. However, even public servants need to pay their bills. If tuition remission goes, we will have to go too.

In light of the facts, we ask you not to devastate the University of Maryland. We ask you to protect your most productive constituents. We ask you to preserve tuition remission and protect the working conditions of graduate employees at the University of Maryland.

Sincerely,

Nicole King & Suzanne Sindi
Co-Chairs, GALOL