University of Iowa graduate student union calls for elimination of grad student fees

University of Iowa graduate student workers want to “end the fees.”

That was the call to action for more than 75 members of the graduate student union protest on Tuesday, March 5, at the Iowa City Pentacrest. The student demonstrators carried a roughly 150-foot-long scroll into the office of University of Iowa President Barbara Wilson, a document lined with demands and more than 1,000 signatures.

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Union wants less fees

The graduate union is demanding the university eliminate all graduate student fees. According to the UI's online tuition and fee schedule, graduate students are currently responsible for many of the same fees as their undergraduate counterparts, including fees for the student union building, activities, services, recreation facilities, and student health.

An English major seeking a Masters of Fine Arts degree, for example, would pay around $5,600 in tuition and roughly $850 in fees per semester, according to the current schedule estimates. Non-residents in the same program pay nearly triple that.

A key difference, in the eyes of the Coalition to Organize Graduate Students union, is that graduate students are also employees of the University of Iowa.

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A march to the president's office

The group of graduate students delivered the brief but symbolically long letter to President Wilson’s office, marching into Jessup Hall and packing the second-floor hallway.

The demonstrators chanted, “The university works because we do,” and threatened that a lack of response within the next two weeks would prompt workers to “Shut it down.”

International graduate students pay high fees

International students' fees mount even higher. They must pay a $2,925 Student Health Insurance Plan, an international student fee, an International Graduate Matriculation Fee, a records and documents fee, and an English proficiency evaluation fee.

The Coalition to Organize Graduate Students estimates that under the current university contract, first-year international graduate students will pay more than 7% of their annual wages back to the university in fees.

“The University of Iowa has the resources to finance the basic maintenance and operations of campus without charging graduate students,” Cary Stough, an English PhD candidate at the UI said. “This administration squeezes some of its most vulnerable and lowest paid employees by charging them excessive fees to work.”

Workers detailed their experiences, mostly anonymously, through an online poll conducted by the Coalition to Organize Graduate Students, which was shared during the protest.

“You pay us poverty wages,” one dance Masters of Fine Arts candidate wrote. “...You squeeze us for every last cent and then you line your pockets. I do not pay you, you pay me.”

Ryan Hansen covers local government and crime for the Press-Citizen. He can be reached at [email protected] or on X, formerly known as Twitter, @ryanhansen01.

This article originally appeared on Iowa City Press-Citizen: COGS union demands elimination of graduate student worker fees