Students help shape national proposals

When officers of the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students (NAGPS) arrived in Washington, D.C., this past weekend, Feb. 11-12, to lobby for legislative initiatives among members of Congress, they took with them a platform crafted in part by students from Washington University.

Holly Williams from the School of Architecture, president of the Graduate-Professional Council (GPC) representing all eight schools at the University, was part of a NAGPS conference that wrote the group's 2000 legislative platform. Also at the conference, held in Columbus, Ohio, in November, were Shelly Schrappen of Arts & Sciences' Graduate Student Senate and Malaina Brown, a graduate student in Arts & Sciences now on leave from the University. Brown is a member of the NAGPS national board.

The platform sets forth an ambitious legislative agenda, including proposals for:

Increased federal funding for graduate fellowships, which have diminished in number dramatically since the 1970s;
Expanded tax deductions for interest paid on student loans, raising the income ceiling for eligibility;
Increased federal research support;
Enhanced tax incentives for graduate and professional students, including exemptions for employer-provided educational benefits and the tuition portions of scholarships, fellowships and grants;
A new position in the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Postsecondary Education for a graduate and professional education coordinator, charged with promoting and supporting graduate and professional studies; and
Affordable health care coverage for graduate and professional students, post-docs and research assistants and fellows.

For international students, the platform seeks increased flexibility in work and travel restrictions and permitting students to transfer without affecting their visas. Another resolution supports the right of legal immigrants to pursue graduate studies and to benefit from federal student aid programs.

Responding to efforts in some states to divert higher education funding to primary and secondary schools threatened by reduced revenues, the NAGPS agenda argues that education at all levels must be "adequately and equitably funded."

The NAGPS went to Washington this week because the annual budgetary process is now getting under way. "During the early stages of the federal appropriations process," Williams said, "NAGPS feels that it is imperative to contact our national representatives and express our interest in future legislative proposals."

The NAGPS was founded in 1986 to improve the quality of graduate and professional student life. Its national office and regional networks also serve as a clearinghouse for information and resources.

GPC coordinates the appointment of graduate and professional student representatives to a variety of University committees and panels, concerned with issues ranging from the academic calendar to parking to campus safety.