Colleagues,

As part of a major Federal Tax Reform initiative to rewrite the USA tax code, there are numerous changes being proposed that will lead to personal financial changes for students, families and our employees, including the graduate students who receive benefits for teaching and research work done at the University.

The American Council on Education has provided a comprehensive, easy-to-read digest http://www.acenet.edu/Pages/Higher-Education-and-Tax-Reform.aspx#tabContent-1 of the proposed changes being debated in Congress now and it would make for prudent review this weekend by all of us who care about understanding issues that may impact access to education for our students, leveraging our grants and university resources, and how we plan as individuals based on our employee and/or student benefits.

These proposals are under active consideration now by your Congressional representative and could be moving to final stages of negotiation as early as next week. Please refer to this landing page http://www.acenet.edu/Pages/Higher-Education-and-Tax-Reform.aspx#tabContent-1 and the categories for families, campus employees, university endowments, etc. ( http://www.acenet.edu/Pages/Higher-Education-and-Tax-Reform.aspx#tabContent-... ).

Some of us may also be getting communications on these issues through our professional associations like CUPA-HR https://cupahr.informz.net/informzdataservice/onlineversion/ind/bWFpbGluZ2luc3RhbmNlaWQ9NzA4NzEzOCZzdWJzY3JpYmVyaWQ9MTA2ODMzOTY0NA== , NACUBO http://www.nacubo.org/Initiatives/Tax_Reform.html and NAICU https://www.naicu.edu/policy-advocacy/tax-policy, etc. to further inform our understanding of the pros and cons of any change in tax code.

Many of the links above include ways to contact representatives and join social media campaigns if you have concerns, questions or want to engage in sharing your personal opinion outside of university business.

You may also look up your House and Senate representatives phone number and Websites with contact forms via https://whoaremyrepresentatives.org/ and express your opinion directly.

If you have questions, please feel free to reach me as well. Thanks and have a great weekend.

Kelly

*​*

*Kelly O. Chezum, MBA ’04, DLP*

*Vice President for External Relations | Clarkson University *

Box 5500 | 8 Clarkson Avenue | Room 333 Cora & Bayard Clarkson Science Center

Potsdam, New York 13699

Office: 315.268.4483 | Cell 315.345.5454 | chezumk@clarkson.edu

Meetings By Appointment at Capital Region Campus

80 Nott Terrace | Schenectady, NY 12308

The important thing is not to stop questioning.

• Albert Einstein