By Ken Gewertz

Gazette Staff

With a full-time job, a husband and 7-year-old son at home, and a midterm exam coming up in two days, Annie Byrd could think of better ways to use her time than making an impromptu trip to Washington, D.C. But this was no ordinary tourist visit.

Byrd, coordinator of administrative services for information technology at the Medical School and a bachelor's degree candidate at the Extension School, had been asked to speak about why courses paid for by the Tuition Assistance Plan (TAP) and similar programs should not be taxed.

"I guess I was selected because I was a real-life example of how the TAP program really benefits employees," Byrd said. "Going to Washington for the day was a stretch, but I was honored to be a champion on behalf of thousands of Extension School students."

At a special press conference in the Capitol Building, Byrd spoke about TAP's importance in the achievement of her own educational goals. While attending Northeastern University she married and had a child, and the resulting financial pressures forced her to quit school and get a full-time job. Later, she turned down a higher-paying position in order to work at Harvard because TAP would make it possible for her to finish college. After obtaining her bachelor's degree, Byrd hopes to go to law school.

In her testimony, Byrd pointed out that in 1994-95 the majority of Harvard employees taking advantage of TAP were nonexempt and earned an average salary of $28,000 per year.

"The vast majority of these employees would find it a great hardship to have to pay tax on the value of the course or courses that they take," she said. "The ability to pursue further education, whether as in my case to eventually obtain a degree, or like many of my colleagues, simply to improve their skills in order to do their jobs better and to enable them to advance in their careers, is of great importance. Each semester, I and more than 1,200 of my Harvard colleagues take advantage of this incentive to improve our skills by taking courses."

Byrd appeared at the press conference with a delegation headed by U.S. Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II. The delegation also included Grace Carolyn Brown, president of Roxbury Community College; Jon Westling, president of Boston University; Massachusetts Congressmen Richard Neal, James McGovern, and John Olver; Roger Sullivan from the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities of Massachusetts; and Sam Liu, an M.I.T. graduate student.

The delegation was in Washington to lobby for more "education-friendly" tax provisions in the current Republican-sponsored budget bill. The effort was partially successful. In its earlier form, the bill would have extented undergraduate tax exemptions only through 1997. The revised bill extends them for three years, with the promise that the issue will be reexamined at that point. Graduate students were not as lucky, however. Their exemptions will be eliminated immediately.

Byrd, who has won oratory contests and has acted in a number of television commercials, nevertheless admitted to feeling nervous when she stepped up to the microphone in a room crowded with journalists, lobbyists, members of Congress, and other interested parties. Her natural poise and conviction stood her in good stead, however, at least judging by the reaction of her fellow lobbyists.

"After I was finished, Joe Kennedy told me that my testimony was really good and gave real voice and power to the issue," Byrd said.