The past couple of weeks have been difficult, and we know difficult times await us, our students, the wider campus community, the nation, and the world. We hope everyone is adjusting as well as you can to this new COVID-19 Pandemic environment, and we want to let you know what TAUP is doing to respond to it.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please contact TAUP at taupaft@gmail.com. While our office will be closed for the next two weeks, we will be checking email regularly, and individual contact numbers and email addresses are listed at the end of this email.
By soliciting feedback from colleagues and keeping each other informed, by listening to information from the administration, and by attending as we can to the concerns that arise from our members, students, and the wider Temple community, TAUP is at work and on call.
We are confident that the dedicated faculty, librarians, and academic professionals of TAUP are doing the best that they can under these trying circumstances and that we will emerge on the other side as a stronger union and university.
Getting Answers from Temple’s Administration
On 3/11, TAUP sent a list of questions to the administration on a range of issues. The administration responded, though not to all of the listed concerns. They assured us that university officials were discussing these and other issues and that we should refer our members to the policies and announcements gathered on Temple’s coronavirus page and encourage members to contact their Dean or other supervisor if they have other questions.
Human Resources has also set up an FAQ here that we encourage our members to read. It is crucial that our members go to official sources for information, so we urge you to check the university’s page regularly.
Be sure to make your supervisors aware of any challenges, questions or concerns you have. If you are concerned about a response that you receive or are hesitant to contact a supervisor or HR, please contact one of your Constituency Council leaders (contact info below).
1. We are sending a formal Request for Information tied to the Health and Safety article of our contract.
2. We are sending a list of questions and recommendations tied to the specific work done by our members. We will share it and any responses that we received.
3. Working with other campus unions, we are developing a document regarding concerns of all workers (e. g., sick leave, child care, the policy for clearance to return to work on campus after contracting the virus, and other issues). This will be an open letter from union leaders to the university, and it will be shared with you once sent.
In formulating these documents, we have drawn on our members’ questions and suggestions and the American Federation of Teachers/American Association of University Professors Principles for Higher Education Response to COVID-19.
TAUP Contact Information
TAUP Vice President:
Leanne Finnigan taup.vicepresident@gmail.com
TAUP Operations Manager (office):
Patricia Blakely taupaft@gmail.com
Organizer:
Jenna Siegel, jsiegelaft@gmail.com
Constituency Council Leaders:
Academic Professional Constituency Council,
Nia Jackson jacksonnia@gmail.com
Adjunct Constituency Council:
Ben Curttright, Chair fileundertragicomedy@gmail.com
Carla Anderson, At Large ckanders87@gmail.com
Librarian Constituency Council,
Fred Rowland, Chair melfred904@gmail.com
Non-Tenure Track Constituency Council:
Donald Wargo, Chair docwargo2@gmail.com;
Mary Stricker, At Large caefeelingrace@gmail.com
Tenured/Tenure Track Constituency Council,
Marsha Weinraub, Chair mweinraub1@gmail.com
Will Jordan, At-Large will.jordan8@gmail.com