Month: January 2019

TAUP Student Debt Clinics: Become a Facilitator or Attendee

e-Bulletin 20190107

Imagine being faced with the option of living without a college degree, or living for years with high levels of student debt.

Students and alumni struggle constantly with the debt they have acquired as they pursue their educations. This debt has a profound and lasting negative impact on their lives. Student debt–now at $1.5 trillion–also has a long-term negative effect on the economy as a whole, discouraging borrowers from making substantial purchases and starting businesses.

For our students, it increases their stress while in school, forcing them to make decisions about what classes to take, what major to pursue, what apartment to rent and what food to buy.  For many, it suppresses access to a college education and affects retention. Too many students are pressured to drop out of school, or never to attend in the first place. It has had a significant influence on universities–including Temple–as a place to study and as a place to work.

TAUP will be offering student debt clinics this semester for students, faculty, staff, alums, and members of the local community.

Learn How to Run a Student Debt Clinic: January 12th and 13th

January 12th, 10:30am-6pm and the 13th 9am-4pm

Paley Library Lecture Hall

Anyone who is interested in working on this issue and helping people with debt is welcome to attend a two-day training. After completing this training, you will be able to co-facilitate a TAUP student debt workshop. See the link below to register.

Attend a Student Debt Clinic

Saturday from 4:30 – 6pm

Paley Library Lecture Hall

If you don’t have an interest in facilitating future clinics but have debt and would like to learn about the options available to you, a Student Debt Clinic will be incorporated into the facilitators’ training, occurring on See the link below to register.

To Register for the Training or the Clinic

If you are interested in either option, click on this link. In response to the questions, if you are in the TAUP collective bargaining unit, your affiliate is the Temple Association of University Professionals, Local #4531. If you are not affiliated with an AFT union, type in NO AFFILIATE.

To train to become a facilitator, select “Philadelphia Train the Trainer” from the drop down menu.

To attend the student debt clinic on Saturday, select “Philadelphia Student Debt Clinic”.

The clinic is a prelude to a Town Hall on Student Debt on 1/16 from 6-8 p.m. hosted by Sara Goldrick-Rab (Education and CLA) and the Hope Center For College, Community, and Justice.

If you have questions, please contact the TAUP office taupaft@gmail.com

 

Starting 2019 Right with TAUP: Solidarity, Organizing, Helping Students With Debt

Dear Members,

We hope your 2019 has started well!   While many of us are enjoying our well-deserved break and/or back in our labs or are busy off-campus with writing articles, preparing classes, and attending to other tasks, the work of TAUP continues.  We want to let you know about 3 upcoming opportunities:

PASNAP Picketing 1/3

A strong union shows solidarity with other unions.  The Pennsylvania Association of Staff Nurses and Allied Professionals (PASNAP), which represents nurses and other caregivers, is picketing Hahnemann Hospital tomorrow. to protest management’s refusal to accept safe staffing grids. These grids would protect patients by limiting the number of patients a nurse can be assigned at one time. TAUP members have  shown a strong interest in workload issues in our own bargaining surveys. In hospitals, heavy workloads carry the highest possible stakes. Join TAUP members in pushing back against the unsafe conditions these nurses are fighting. Hahnemann Hospital, January 3rd, from 11 a.m.-1 p.m.

TAUP Membership Drive, 1/8-10

TAUP’s negotiations with the administration will start in February. Strength at the bargaining table relies on strong membership numbers,so next week on  January 8, 9, and 10 we will be phone banking at the TAUP Office, calling prospective members.


Please join us in this important effort.

Each day:

Training: 11am – Noon

Phone Banking: Noon – 4pm


Attend one, two, or all three days! Once you’ve done the training, you don’t need to do it again to come for a few hours to make calls on another day, but we do ask that you commit to a minimum of 2 hours of phone banking on the day you attend the training. (So if you can only attend one day, minimum attendance would be 11am – 2pm). Lunch will be provided each day around Noon, and coffee all day!


Please use this RSVP Form to sign up and let us know what day(s) and time(s) you’ll be joining us:

https://goo.gl/forms/HlobnoBhXCUUpiNp2

Student Debt Clinics  1/12-1/13

Our strength as a union depends in part on how effectively we help our students.   As you know, our students are burdened with a crippling amount of debt from student loans.  That’s why TAUP is co-sponsoring  a workshop run by our national affiliate, the AFT, on Saturday and Sunday 1/12 and 1/13.  There will be an actual Student Debt Clinic incorporated into the training. The clinic is a prelude to a Town Hall on Student Debt on 1/16 from 6-8 p.m. hosted by Sara Goldrick-Rab (Education and CLA) and the Hope Center For College, Community, and Justice.

If you are interested in any of these opportunities to strengthen TAUP, please contact us at taupaft@gmail.com or 215 763-2287.