My wife is graduating from a PhD program and all her friends spam social media with "Republicans making my taxes go up!" posts.
News Flash - universities claim they pay way more than a grad student's stipend, then get some sort of tax break by "gifting" the tuition. So if tuition is $50k, and pay a $30k stipend, total compensation is $80k - even though a student only gets $30k salary!
Why doesn't the university just say the tuition awarded to grad students is $100k? $500k? $1million? Who cares? It doesn't really exist anyway!
In reality, they should "award" grad students $0 in tuition and pay them like what they are - employees (and deeply exploited employees at that!).
EDIT - Sure, PhD students might cost more than they are paid (although I seriously doubt it given the 80 hour weeks, classes taught, and metric ton of bullshit my wife put up with). Regardless, pretending that somehow my wife is being paid $80k and the university is doing her this big favor is a ridiculous. Universities should figure out how to fund the supposed costs some other way than through a giant, made-up tuition bill that's waived. Universities are full of the smartest people on earth, surely they can figure out how to give grants properly without this insane accounting maneuver.
News Flash - universities claim they pay way more than a grad student's stipend, then get some sort of tax break by "gifting" the tuition. So if tuition is $50k, and pay a $30k stipend, total compensation is $80k - even though a student only gets $30k salary!
Why doesn't the university just say the tuition awarded to grad students is $100k? $500k? $1million? Who cares? It doesn't really exist anyway!
In reality, they should "award" grad students $0 in tuition and pay them like what they are - employees (and deeply exploited employees at that!).
EDIT - Sure, PhD students might cost more than they are paid (although I seriously doubt it given the 80 hour weeks, classes taught, and metric ton of bullshit my wife put up with). Regardless, pretending that somehow my wife is being paid $80k and the university is doing her this big favor is a ridiculous. Universities should figure out how to fund the supposed costs some other way than through a giant, made-up tuition bill that's waived. Universities are full of the smartest people on earth, surely they can figure out how to give grants properly without this insane accounting maneuver.