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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (May 5, 1986)
Learning how to live part of coping with death See Page 6 Oregon Daily Emerald Monday, May 5, 1986 Eugene. Oregon Volume 87, Number 145 GTFs take complaints to chancellor’s office By Chris Norm) (H Ikv Kmcrald Oregon has jumped I he ruh by withholding taxes on graduate teaching fellows' tuition waivers, according to ’ University CTFs who settled |n at the of fii:e of William Davis. State System of Higher Education chancellor. Friday morning. About 15 GT*Fs lounged on the floor in Davis', office correcting papers and ex ams while waiting for a Friday afternoon meeting with University President Paul Olum.; ... ' The.UTFs are protesting the decision by the State Board of Higher Education to begin compliance with the U.S. Tax . Code and withhold tax on tuition waivers'iro'm their paychecks. Until I)«h; . 31;'1985, tuition waivers were exempt . •„ under, the tax code. Congress has not , renewed the exemption, and.the State Board decided in mid-April to ; tregin withholding the tax: ’ Nearly every other state in the nation '.Is'not enforcing the tax code, according to GTF leaders. :. - - "The president's office has confirmed that 49- other states are not withholding." said Chuck Hunt, presi 1 dent of the GTF union local. "It almost looks like we're the only ones." But Davis and Virginia Boushev, assis tant to the executive vice chancellor, say appearance* are deceiving. Boushev said she has contacted many California state system colleges and learned thut they pay CTFs with a large stipend from which tuition must be paid, rather than a tuition waiver r Tha stipend has always heen subject to tax. so the tax code change does not af fect them, she said. There is a case where the date of registration made a difference,” Davis said; •; ' ■ . • V. He says a large percentage of other col leges are on the semester system, so the tuition waivers vyere issued in December 'of last year, making them part. of.1985 in • come, when .they registered for sr>cond semester. This means the . GTFs at those.schools ' have not been taxed vet. and the tsix will • la*.“Withheld beginning next semester, : Davis»said;. ' - Other, schools are just hoping against ' hopp /that, . the*'.exemption will be reinstated. Itbush'ey said. . ■ " We can't lakethat gamble.-’.she said. "Once we have the legal opinion, any administrator who says we'll ignorethat "advice*and cpntjnue not to” withhold .would tie personally liable! I dontt think any-ime of us* can afford a million ■ dollars;."-"r-. Bid the, (ITFs- cjaim the financial burden has unnecessarily been shifted onto their shoulders! although they, are the least able to carry it. They feel that ihe board should have put moire effort in to finding alternatives to comply with the tax code. "TliftPifict of the Attorney General of the state of Washington, citing a case from a federal district court in Ohio, has informed higher education officials in Washington that withholding on tuition waivers is not necessary.” Hunt said. "The law is open to interpretation.” 1 Pinckney, IFC oppose special fund for GTFs By Stan Nelson Of the Km<*r«ld A University request to provide short-term loans for financially ailing GTFs failed at an Incidental Fee Com mittee hearing Friday. University President Paul Olum's office requested the special hearing to ask the IFC to loan surplus incidental fees to GTFs. The state of ()regon. not students, is responsible for providing assistance to GTFs. said ASUO President Lynn Pinckney, who made the ASUO recommendation to the IFC on the proposal. in a letter to Oium. she saiil there were several problems with the pro posal. The GTFs entered into an agreement with the state to provide a service for a set amount of money. Because the state knew the withholdings would occur, GTFs should be issued payments equal to the amount of the withholdings. Using incidental fees for loans would benefit individual students on ly and be tantamount to subsidizing teaching, both of which have been considered inappropriate uses of the fees before, she said. GTFs might not las able to pay back loans, she added. It is wrong also to charge student’s interest on their own money, she added. Emergency loan money is depleted and the University has no more money to lend, said Alison Baker, ex ecutive assistant to the president. However, students have a reserve of about $300,000 in overrealized in cidental fees, and the attorney general's office ruled that these funds tan be used for short-term loans. Maker said. "The state won't give the GTFs $150 so they can eat this month.” she said. At least the University is making an attempt to ease the financial burden of the GTFs, she said. However. "If (the GTFs) don't want loans and will only accept money as a gift, they won't get anything," Maker said. The decision to withhold $150 from GTF's wages in April and May for winter and spring term tuition oc cured in mid-April when it became evident the federal tax exemption that expired January 1, lOHti, might not be renewed. Maker said. The Oregon attorney general’s of fice ruled that GTF tu.tion waivers are taxable income, and the State System of Higher Fducation had no choice but to withhold, she added. "The crux of the matter is how do GTFs feel about the proposal,” said IFC member Adam Apalategui. There was too little time to consider the pro posal. he said. The IFG voted 5-1 to deny the ad ministration's request. It did indicate that the GTFs could still make a direct request to the IFG for assistance. Graduate teaching fellows grade papers Chancellor William Davis' office Friday. and exams Flftutii b> lUrvry Noun* during a protest in said Ken Summers, a C.TF in sociology ■ The jiax. code} is vary specific alx>ut the amount to-be paid, but the enforcement is very vague. The whole system of en forcement depends on the cooperation of the employer. So all of these other universities have decided that they'll u ait until they absolutely have to withhold '' What the GTFs want. Summers said, is to know the basis for the board’s deci sion to withhold the tax at this time. The decision was based on a reading of the law. and an opinion by Oregon Assistant Attorney General jerry Lidz that the department of higher education is'Iiable for payment and penalty of non payment if the money isn’t withheld from the GTFs' paychecks. Davis said. The new tax takes about $150 in addi tional income-tax from the average GTF’s April and May paychecks. Most GTFs i arn between $400 and $500 each month. (Generally, tax on tuition waivers will Ik; about $50 each month from GTF paychecks, but because the State Board waited until April to begin withholding, three months’ worth of back taxes on tui tion waivers were already due. Local leaders of sanctuary affirm movement’s future By Michael Rivers Of the Kmrrald Leaders of the Eugene luterfaith Sanc tuary Network reaffirmed their commit ment to the sanctuary movement at a noon rally and press conference Friday. The reaffirmation came despite the felony convictions of eight Arizona ac tivists on Thursday. About 70 supporters gathered in the rain to hear sanctuary movement ac tivists declare their strengthened resolve. Karen Hemmingsen, a member of the Eugene Friends Meeting, said in reference to the Arizona verdict, "Twelve reasonable people reached a reasonable decision based on the facts given. But they were not allowed to hear the real case.” llemmingsen’s statement referred to the prosecution's success at narrowing the scope of the trial to exclude such issues as religion, humanitarianism, in ternational law and political asylum. Augustine Lopez, a Salvadoran refugee being sheltered in Eugene, believes the convictions "demonstrate massive repression,” but said, "we have seen much worse.” American sanctuary efforts are saving thousands of lives in Central America. Lopez said, speaking through an inter preter. Reassuring the crowd that he wasn’t trying to judge the sanctuary movement, Lopez said, "We risk disap pearing. losing our lives, and you risk only one or two years (in jail)." Marion Malcolm, a member of the ln terfaith Sanctuary Network and a staff person for Clergy and Laity Concerned, called the movement "a powerful threat to U.S. policy in Central America.” She accused the United States of "perpetuating torture, death and killing in El Salvador.” She said there are more than 240 con gregations across the nation involved in the sanctuary movement. Onlookers were invited to sign a state ment of complicity in support of the Arizona defendants. The statement will be turned over to the assistant federal prosecutor at the Eugene Federal building today. The statement says: "If the United States government finds our obedience to the highest laws of Cod and of nations to be in violation of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952, then we declare our complicity with the actions of love and concern for refugees from Central America which have led to the convic tions, in Federal Court at Tucson, Arizona, of our fellow workers in the sanctuary movement. "We the undersigned acknowledge our complicity in upholding the Refugee Act of 1980, the Geneva Accords and other international laws prohibiting the refoulement of refugees.” jack Maddex, a spokesman for the Central Presbyterian Church, said they are offering sanctuary to refugees "not in disrespect for authority, but for the pro per ordering of authority.” There are currently five Salvadoran refugees in sanctuary with the church. Bill Cadbury, representing the Eugene Friends Meeting, said the fundamental Continued on Page 3