Fee waiver for all student workers at ASU, NAU, and UA

The Arizona Board of Regents & University Presidents/Administrators at ASU, UA & NAU

We, the undersigned, demand that Arizona State University (ASU), Northern Arizona University (NAU), and the University of Arizona (UA) grant a student fee waiver to every undergraduate and graduate student worker, including, but not limited to Teaching Assistants (TA), Research Assistants (RA), and Graduate Student Assistants (GSA). Student workers make up a large portion of the researchers, graders, housing staff, and instructors across all public university campuses in Arizona. We make the daily functioning of our universities possible. It is unacceptable that, as employees, students at the three public universities of Arizona are being charged between $300 and $1,000 per semester (up to 3 in one year) in student fees.

We believe that employees should not be required to pay to work.

The current minimum wages for hourly student workers at UA is now $14.50; at ASU it is $12.80; and at NAU it is $15.00. The current base salaries for grad student RA/TA/GSAs for a 0.5 appointment at ASU is $21,879; at UA $20,000; and at NAU $18,000. These are substantially lower than the estimated living wage for these areas, according to the MIT living wage calculator. A guaranteed fee waiver for every student worker is the first step toward a better quality of life for students.

Furthermore, high student fees disproportionately affect already vulnerable workers. Students are only allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours per week at the university, meaning that students are never given an opportunity to increase their hours. Student working hours are limited across campuses, and no student workers are allowed to work full time. Those on smaller appointments pay an even larger portion of their wages in order to work. Regardless—workers should not be required to pay in order to work, take classes, and live on campus.

Mandatory fees limit access to higher education and force students to find employment off campus by creating unnecessary financial barriers to poor and working class students, often leading to increased rent and debt burdens. Charging essential employees fees on the premise that they are students first contributes directly to the financial insecurity and vulnerability of vital members of our academic spaces.

We need a fee waiver, and we won’t be the first students to win one. Student workers at other universities, including UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, CU Boulder, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, have guaranteed remission for their fees. Tuition waivers are standard for graduate appointments; fee waivers must be too. With the implementation of a fee waiver, we expect that there be no reduction of services that the fees support and no increase of fees for other students to cover the student fee remission of student workers.

Our compensation on the whole is unconscionably low. We can’t afford to live self-sufficiently, let alone pay to keep our jobs. Our universities cannot continue to take advantage of student workers by first underpaying us and then demanding some of that money back.

We demand a fee waiver for all student workers at ASU, NAU, and UA.

Signed,

United Campus Workers Arizona & University Union of Northern Arizona


Sponsored by

To: The Arizona Board of Regents & University Presidents/Administrators at ASU, UA & NAU
From: [Your Name]

We, the undersigned, demand that Arizona State University (ASU), Northern Arizona University (NAU), and the University of Arizona (UA) grant a student fee waiver to every undergraduate and graduate student worker, including, but not limited to Teaching Assistants (TA), Research Assistants (RA), and Graduate Student Assistants (GSA). Student workers make up a large portion of the researchers, graders, housing staff, and instructors across all public university campuses in Arizona. We make the daily functioning of our universities possible. It is unacceptable that, as employees, students at the three public universities of Arizona are being charged between $300 and $1,000 per semester (up to 3 in one year) in student fees.

We believe that employees should not be required to pay to work.

The current minimum wages for hourly student workers at UA is now $14.50; at ASU it is $12.80; and at NAU it is $15.00. The current base salaries for grad student RA/TA/GSAs for a 0.5 appointment at ASU is $21,879; at UA $20,000; and at NAU $18,000. These are substantially lower than the estimated living wage for these areas, according to the MIT living wage calculator. A guaranteed fee waiver for every student worker is the first step toward a better quality of life for students.

Furthermore, high student fees disproportionately affect already vulnerable workers. Students are only allowed to work a maximum of 20 hours per week at the university, meaning that students are never given an opportunity to increase their hours. Student working hours are limited across campuses, and no student workers are allowed to work full time. Those on smaller appointments pay an even larger portion of their wages in order to work. Regardless—workers should not be required to pay in order to work, take classes, and live on campus.

Mandatory fees limit access to higher education and force students to find employment off campus by creating unnecessary financial barriers to poor and working class students, often leading to increased rent and debt burdens. Charging essential employees fees on the premise that they are students first contributes directly to the financial insecurity and vulnerability of vital members of our academic spaces.

We need a fee waiver, and we won’t be the first students to win one. Student workers at other universities, including UC Berkeley, University of Chicago, CU Boulder, and University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, have guaranteed remission for their fees. Tuition waivers are standard for graduate appointments; fee waivers must be too. With the implementation of a fee waiver, we expect that there be no reduction of services that the fees support and no increase of fees for other students to cover the student fee remission of student workers.

Our compensation on the whole is unconscionably low. We can’t afford to live self-sufficiently, let alone pay to keep our jobs. Our universities cannot continue to take advantage of student workers by first underpaying us and then demanding some of that money back.

We demand a fee waiver for all student workers at ASU, NAU, and UA.

Signed,

United Campus Workers Arizona & University Union of Northern Arizona