St. Lawrence University updated its decision on the international students’ scholarship tax policy on Nov. 18. The university decided to implement a phased plan where current international students will remain under the existing system, where the university covers the scholarship taxes, while next year’s incoming class and transfer students will be informed about paying scholarship taxes exceeding tuition and mandatory fees.
While the university has historically covered scholarship taxes for a group of international students, the Vice President for Finance and Administration, Karl Speicker, notified these international students that the university will no longer cover scholarship taxes exceeding tuition and mandatory fees in an email on Nov. 7. The university also held two meetings on Nov. 13, including an international taxation session and a Q&A session for students who received the email.
After these meetings, Spiecker sent another email to international students about the university’s final decision on the taxation policy
on Nov. 18. “Over the past several days, we have listened closely to the concerns raised about the University’s plan to change how federal tax withholding on certain scholarship funds is handled,” he said. “Your willingness to openly engage has helped us understand the impact of this change more fully, and it has been a productive process with Thelmo Exec as we’ve listened together and worked toward a solution,” Spiecker said, acknowledging the leadership of Thelmo during this process.
According to this email, the university will exempt current students from the new policy and inform incoming new and transfer students about the taxes before their enrollment. Additionally, international students’ feedback during this process raised concerns related to campus employment conditions, including low wages and limited working hours. Therefore, the administration will work on improving working conditions for student workers. “We will begin this work, and, during the spring semester, share updates with Thelmo Exec,” Spiecker said.
President of the Thelomathesian Society, Sofia Zareizadeh ’26, values the administration’s efforts in the process. “Considering the recent event related to Schreiber, with all the hassle going on, it was amazing how the administration still managed to figure out a solution for this issue and also decided to address other employment issues,” Zareizadeh said.
Zareizadeh also highlighted Thelmo’s impact in the process, especially thanking Alexa Santana ’27, Thelmo’s Central Treasurer. On behalf of Thelmo, Santana sent out a concern form to the same group of students who received the initial email, inviting them to share comments and questions related to the issue on Nov. 10. “In times like this, typically people just freak out, so it was helpful to have all the concerns in a form and collect data to share constructive feedback with the administration,” she said.
Santana and Zareizadeh shared students’ feedback with members of senior staff through several meetings, including during a previously scheduled meeting on Nov. 7 and another meeting on Nov. 12. “In that meeting, I also asked whether senior staff would consider revisiting the decision, or at minimum rolling out the policy change only for incoming students,” Santana said. “A central issue raised by many was the difficulty current students would face in financially planning for an unexpected change, particularly given that the tax had not been a concern when they chose to attend SLU or accepted their original financial aid packages,” she said.
Santana and Zareizadeh heard back from Vice President for Student Life Jon Duraj on Nov. 17 about the likely approval to apply the policy only to incoming students. This information was disclosed to the impacted students the next day. “Overall, as Thelmo, we are relieved that the decision will not affect current students, who enrolled at the university under certain expectations,” Santana said. “We believe this process has strengthened the transparency and communication between Thelmo, the student body, and senior staff, and we hope it sets a precedent for incorporating student perspectives earlier in future policy discussions.”
Ahmed Tamimi ’29 reflected on the administration’s final decision as an international student. “I think just one point to emphasize is the lack of transparency and student engagement within the decision,” Tamimi said. “I was happy with the final decision that they made; however, the way they proceeded with it, interacted, and communicated with the student body was very inefficient and unfair.”
Another international student, June Phobchanat ’28, also expressed frustration toward the decision-making process. “The first email was vague, the meeting gave us more confusion than answers; we were left stressing for day,” she said. However, Phobchanat was proud of the international student community for speaking up and standing together. “This is the first time since my high school days at UWC [United World Colleges] that I’ve witnessed such powerful student advocacy,” she said.
Alissa Lapentti Grünstein ’27 mentioned that UWC students were invited to a dessert reception on Dec. 8, where university leaders, including Speicker, will participate. “I hope all the leadership will be there in person and take this as an opportunity to say sorry and admit to the fact that they were doing things haphazardly,” Lapentti said. “Because the University did not ask for students’ opinions, run studies, or even think about how many people could leave the school without a degree, and how much mental strain this policy would cause for students.”
Sofia Macero ’25 emphasized the need for institutional reform to involve related representatives in policy-making processes at SLU. “The University may believe that they closed this chapter by just sending this really performative email, in reality, the type of damage that they have caused will never be forgiven by the international community,” Macero said. “Even though Karl [Spiecker] actively said that institutional reform is not needed during the first tax meeting, the university needs to actually start by recognizing that it’s needed not only for us to have a voice within the institution, but also for faculty to feel included within these types of conversations.”
Santana acknowledged the policy’s possible implications for international student enrollment rates in the following years, given declining national trends. “Sofia [Zareizadeh] and I met with Jon [Duraj] and the new Vice President of Enrollment, Jonathan Kent, this past Monday to discuss ideas, concerns and potential strategies,” Santana said. “We are hopeful that students and the student government can continue to play an active role in supporting stronger overall enrollment moving forward.”