As the COVID-19 Pandemic moves into its second year, UW-Madison students will once again face a $734.30 charge for segregated fees for the upcoming spring semester. International students will see an additional (and discriminatory) charge of $100 on top of that. For graduate student workers, these fees amount to 10% of our take-home pay that we are forced to return back to our employer.
The pandemic has placed additional financial strain on graduate workers; bringing this issue into the forefront once again. No one should have to choose between paying fees and making rent, especially not fees for many facilities and services that aren’t available to us due to the pandemic. Graduate workers, already stretched thin, deserve our full wages — we deserve to be able to cover our living expenses, plain and simple. We deserve a full remittance of segregated fees, and an end to the international student fee altogether. Withholding mandatory fees will leverage our collective power and help ensure additional time to organize towards changing this harmful policy.