Category: eBulletins

The 2021 American Relief Plan Act: What you should know

The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 signed by the President last Thursday is an extensive document that will assist schools, our students, their families, neighbors and businesses in the community surrounding TU campuses, alums, and most (if not all) of us. 

There are significant provisions highlighted below that members of the TAUP bargaining unit should be aware of.  You can search for further details in the Act’s full text and see a summary of all of the provisions here.

 

State Funding

“The bill requires each state receiving K-12 funds to maintain spending in fiscal year 2022 and 2023 on higher education, at least at the proportionate levels of the state’s spending on those categories relative to the state’s overall spending, averaged over fiscal years 2017, 2018, and 2019.”  The American Association of Public and Land Grant Universities Analysis of the ARPA 2021

 

Funds for Institutions of Higher Ed and Students

This chart compares funding from past relief acts to the American Rescue Plan Act and clarifies how funds are to be spent.

Temple should be receiving about $78M from the ARPA

    1. Half of the funds will go directly to students
    2. The other half can be used to defray expenses associated with coronavirus including: 
      1. Payroll, including re-hiring furloughed and laid off employees 
      2. Reimbursement for expenses already incurred 
      3. Technology costs associated with a transition to distance education
      4. Faculty and staff trainings
      5. Lost revenue 
      6. Make additional financial aid grants to students
    3. Institutions must use a portion of their allocation for: 
      1. Implementing evidence-based practices to monitor and suppress coronavirus in accordance with public health guidelines; and 
      2. Conduct direct outreach to financial aid applicants about the opportunity to receive a financial aid adjustment due to the recent unemployment of a family member or independent student, or other circumstances

 

Funding for Research and Creative Work

The National Science Foundation, National Institute of Standards and Technology, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities and the Institute of Museum and LIbrary Services are among a number of organizations where funding has been increased and the usual spending timelines for the use of these funds have been extended.

 

Stimulus Payments

Cutting to the chase: you can calculate your stimulus payment here. The ARPA’s stimulus includes dependents regardless of their age.

 

Student Loan Forgiveness Support

The ARPA provides additional tax relief for those who have their student loans forgiven between December 31, 2020 and January 1, 2026.

When certain student loans are forgiven, the “forgiven” sum may be added to the individual’s gross income for that year, creating an extraordinary tax burden.  The ARPA removes that tax for loans forgiven within the stated five year period.  All federal student loans, and certain private education and institutional loans, will be eligible.

 

 Changes in Eligibility and Premiums for Obamacare and Help with COBRA

If your health insurance is provided through the ACA (Obamacare), your premium rates will decrease due to ARPA’s increased subsidies detailed here. The changes are retroactive to January 1, 2021, so those who are already enrolled should receive compensation for their 2021 payments.

You can calculate what your premium would be under the current plan here.

To sign up or to change your plan, go to Healthcare.gov.  Even if you earned too much to qualify in the past, you may qualify now. 

For individuals who will lose work and want to maintain their current health plan between April 1st and September 30th of 2021, employers or insurers must cover 6 months of COBRA benefits and will receive a tax credit to offset the costs. More info here.

 

Child Tax Credit

The expanded Child Tax Credit will reduce child poverty in the U.S. by more than 40% and will be available to most people who need help to pay for the care of children under 13 or other dependents.  You can calculate your tax credit here.

The credit for the first six months of the year will be applied to income taxes at the end of the year. In July, checks will be sent monthly.  Credits range from $500 to $3600 per child depending on their age, and the credit begins to decrease for those with incomes above $112,500. More helpful information here.

 

Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit

To help people work, the Child and Dependent Care Credit can offer 50% of up to $8,000 in caregiving expenses and up to $16,000 for the care of two or more dependents.  Certain family members do not qualify as caregivers for the credit. Child care is for children under 13 and dependent care must be for a dependent who has lived with you for more than six months and is physically or mentally incapable of self-care. More info here.

 

Dependent Care Reimbursement Accounts

ARPA offers an increase from $5000 to $10,500 as the maximum amount that can be contributed on a tax-free basis to a Dependent Care Reimbursement/Flexible Spending Account.  For married individuals filing separately, the increase is from $2,500 to $5,250. Follow the link for Information on Temple’s Dependent Care/Flexible Spending Account Benefit.

 

Unemployment

The ARPA extends Unemployment Insurance (UI) benefits and programs.  

In the past year, the PEUC benefit (Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation) extended UI benefits for those who had exhausted their initial claim. With the ARPA, individuals may now receive up to 79 weeks of benefits.  

The new PUA (Pandemic Unemployment Assistance) program for self-employed individuals, gig workers and others who have not qualified for assistance in the past will be extended from 50 to 79 weeks, until September 6th.

Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) has been the federal government’s weekly unemployment supplement. It will continue to be $300 per week until September 6th.  

Individuals who have received Unemployment in 2020 will not have to pay taxes on $10,200 of the funds received. Couples who file joint returns can each receive this benefit if they have been on UI.  Those with an adjusted joint income above $150,000 will not qualify for this tax benefit.

 

For Veterans and Members of the Military Interested in Higher Ed

The Act closes what is known as the 90/10 loophole.  It pertains to for-profit institutions who are obliged to show their viability as businesses by earning at least 10% of their revenue sources outside of student aid.  

Since GI benefits were not considered to be student aid, for-profits have been generating their 10% through aggressive recruiting of veterans and individuals currently serving in the military.  Closing this loophole will protect servicemembers and veterans from predatory admissions. It will be implemented starting January 1, 2023

Seeking Candidates

The Temple Association of University Professionals is currently seeking candidates for positions representing our full-time and adjunct members.

Nominate a colleague or self-nominate for the following positions: president,  vice president for organizing,  vice president for operations,  treasurer,  secretary,  delegate,  alternates,  and members of the adjunct,  non-tenure track (PIRC) or tenured/tenure track constituency councils.

If you’d like to know more about these positions and the nominations process, please contact taupaft@gmail.com

Nominations are due March 26, 2021.

Why I’ve loved being TAUP president

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

With Tuesday’s announcement of TAUP’s upcoming elections, I want to say a word about my role in the union going forward.

Two years ago, when I sought reelection as President of TAUP, I promised my wife, Keely, my daughter, Talia, and my son, Sasha, that I would not run for a third term since positions like the presidency demand a great deal of the families of those who serve.  So, although I will dearly miss working with you as president to shape our lives at Temple for the better, I will not be seeking re-election.  This has been a difficult four years for so many of our members and those we care about–above all, we are faced with the present danger and lingering effects of the pandemic.  But I make this decision with every confidence that our work together these past four years has put TAUP on an upward trajectory, with new leaders and a new energy that will allow us to meet the challenges we face.

Foremost in my mind as I reflect on the past four years is gratitude for the solidarity you have extended, essential to whatever we have accomplished. I can’t count how many times your commitment, your work, and your kind words have lifted my spirits after a particularly bruising negotiating session or at other difficult moments. Even when we have only partially achieved what we fought for, you have understood that these temporary setbacks, however painful, are the first chapters in progress we will achieve.  Thanks, too, for those who have offered constructive criticism. A union’s members must feel they have the right to voice opposing opinions; in fact, that’s the necessary first step to working together to address our unmet needs.

So, in the spirit of your generosity and the battles we have fought alongside each other, I want to offer a few specific thank-yous of my own, though not nearly as many as are deserved:

To my mentor and friend, Art Hochner, who taught me so much about how to be President and has always been responsive to my requests for help while giving me the space to chart my own path and make my own mistakes.

To our allies on campus, graduate and undergraduate students, especially the current Presidents of Temple Student Government, Quinn Litsinger, and Temple University Graduate Students Association, Bethany Kosmicki; and the President and Vice President of the Faculty Senate, Rafael Porrata-Doria and Kimmika Williams-Witherspoon.  Thank you for helping keep Temple true to its mission.

To our allies off campus: leaders and staff from AFTPA, AFT, and the Philly AFL-CIO; state officials like Rep. Joe Hohenstein, Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta, Rep. Chris Rabb, and Deputy Attorney General Nancy Walker; and members of City Council like Kendra Brooks, Helen Gym, Isaiah Thomas, and their staffs; the Stadium Stompers, Rev. William Moore, and our other North Philly neighbors and allies.  Your support and commitment have disclosed a vision of what true solidarity brings.   We must build on this!

To those who have served on our Organizing Committees and ad-hoc committees (Childcare, Tuition Benefits, Health and Safety, Diversity), our Constituency Councils, and especially those on the Negotiating Teams and the Executive Committee.  This is where the energy emanates from, especially as we continue to make TAUP a more democratic and activist union.

To our staff, past and present: I am reminded every day that nothing in our union gets done without your expertise, intelligence, wit, imagination, and commitment:  Hammam Aldouri, Sam Allingham, Patricia Blakely, Abegail Bricker, John Campbell-Orde, John DiBenedetto, Dolly Hamilton, Jim McGinnis, Jenna Siegel, and Jennie Shanker.

To my fellow officers:  Norma Corrales-Martin (Treasurer), Jennie Shanker (Vice President, 2017-19), and Leanne Finnigan (Vice President, 2020-).   You have shouldered a heavy load these past four years, and I have known throughout that I could count on you for wise and honest counsel, steady leadership, brilliant ideas, and dedicated follow-through.  Special thanks to Jennie, who has done so many remarkable things for TAUP, and whom I have worked with most closely.

To Talia, Sasha, and, above all, my partner in every way, Keely:  Without your love and support, there’s no way I would have made it through these four wonderful but trying years.

Together, we have accomplished much.  I’ll be offering a State of the Union report toward the end of my term, but here are a few things we’ve done the past 4 years that I’m particularly proud to have been part of:

  • Settling the first contract for adjunct faculty, which among other things included a 15% raise to the minimum, a grievance procedure and other significant rights that have not been extended in the past.

 

  • Settling the first contract where part-time and full-time members bargained in solidarity with each other and engaged in open bargaining, gaining: raises for full-time members greater than projected inflation, limits on the use of Student Feedback Forms in personnel decisions, access to scholarships for tuition at other universities, new promotion procedures and a maternity leave bank for librarians, new leave and merit procedures for academic professionals, more job security for NTTs (though not enough!) and greater representation on promotion, merit, and sabbatical committees, and for adjuncts, new standards for ranks and rates of pay, guidelines for promotion and access to multi-semester appointments

 

  • Working with allies to move the administration to change course on their COVID reopening plan in the Fall

 

  • Supporting our neighbors in preventing the building of an on-campus football stadium

 

  • Administering TAUP’s FAST Fund, established by Sara Goldrick-Rab, to help students in need

 

  • Building stronger relationships with elected officials

 

  • Enforcing the contract more actively by entering into productive dialogue with the administration and, when necessary, filing grievances and going to arbitration

 

  • Establishing new Organizing Committees in every college and school and working with Academic Professionals and Librarians to increase members’ voice and democracy in our union

 

  • Starting to center Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, though we have a long way to go.

 

  • Increasing literacy among members in understanding the university’s finances, especially important as we question the administration’s priorities as they respond to our current financial challenges

Colleagues and friends, my decision not to run again does NOT mean I am stepping away from the union.  I will help in whatever ways the incoming leadership asks me to; I will remain an active member.

TAUP will continue to be an important part of my life, and I am as optimistic about what our union’s future holds as I am clear-eyed about the tests that await us. To help meet those tests,I encourage you to consider running for a position in the upcoming election to represent your colleagues, your school/college/library/advisors, and to continue to build on the strength of this union.

Thank you again for the honor of serving as TAUP’s President.

Solidarity Forever!
Steve