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Join Your Labor Union, Drop Your Debt

By Ben Pollock, 965 secretary

Easing the burden of student loans — even out-and-out debt forgiveness — is available to all of us working in public education right now.

Members of the UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965 are eligible for all benefits of the National Education Association. New among those is the NEA Student Debt Navigator neamb.com/Savi, powered by Savi Solutions, which helps members better manage all types of student loans. Besides its online calculator, the chief feature is that Savi’s team of financial experts is standing by for personal, one-on-one consultations with NEA members.

The ideal option of course is ending one’s debt with loan forgiveness. If you are an educator or other public-service worker with a federal student loan, several programs are available, depending on the type of loan and one’s current status. Savi can help with various student loans; many are eligible for refinancing, deferment or consolidation. Besides U of A faculty from tenured professors through instructors, the program is available to staffers who are 965 members.

Staff, whom the NEA calls “education service professionals” or ESPs, serve a wide variety of functions on campus:

• clerical services
• custodial and maintenance services
• food services
• health and student services
• paraeducators
• security services
• skilled trades
• technical services
• transportation services

Just last October, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona modified the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, following an email campaign of more than 48,000 messages from NEA members. (The Trump administraton had denied 98 percent of the applications.) Deadline warning: The Cardona waiver ends Oct. 31, 2022.

The NEA Student Debt Navigator is a subscription program where the first year of service is free to us NEA union members, if they sign up by October 2022. Besides the online software, the subscription includes electronic form filing, cloud storage for documents, and personal phone or chat assistance from Savi’s debt experts. Savi also shares its tools and advice to those holding non-federal loans.

Wait: Doesn’t union membership mean monthly dues? Yes, you do have to pay to play, so to speak. But reconsider your numbers, please. These loans after years of repayments still have many thousands of dollars due. Then, Local 965 membership for full-time faculty members is $615 a year and staff employees pay $300.48 a year. Sign up at arkansas965.org/join. Or ask questions at uarkansas965@gmail.com.

Source List

Many details of this program — including multimedia files and an extensive FAQ list — can be found at the NEA article “Navigate Your Student Debt: NEA’s Student Debt Experts Have Created Tools Designed to Help Educators through the Complicated Student Debt System.”

NEA has published other articles on the topic as well:

• Slaying the Student Debt Monster — Your union can help you get your education loans under control. January 2021
• NEA Leads Fight to Fix Public Service Loan Forgiveness — The federal student loan forgiveness program for educators, fire fighters, nurses and other public service workers isn’t working. Cancelling their student debt is the right answer, union members say. April 2021
• Cancel Student Debt Now, Says NEA President — Educators who have served their communities for at least 10 years have held up their part of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness promise — and they should have their student debt canceled. June 2021 
• The Depth of Educators’ College Debt — The rising cost of higher education has led to mountains of student debt among college-educated Americans. New NEA research shows the pervasiveness of this problem among educators, young and old, White, Black and Hispanic. July 2021
• You Did This! Fixing Public Service Loan Forgiveness — The Department of Education announced an overhaul of its broken Public Service Loan Forgiveness program, after receiving 168,000 emails from NEA members. October 2021
• Meet The Educators Whose Student Debt Has Been Forgiven — NEA members have fought hard for fixes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program. With the new PSLF waiver, announced in October, many are finally seeing relief. January 2022
• How Savi Helps Educators Find Student Loan Debt Relief — Use this easy, interactive tool to find out which student loan forgiveness programs and repayment plans you qualify for and can save you the most money.
• Main link — NEA Student Debt Navigator Powered by Savi — Access this tool to find legitimate options to better manage your student loan debt.  
• More Educators Are Finding Real Relief From Their Student Loan Debt — See how much NEA members are shaving off their student loan debt repayments by using the NEA Student Debt Navigator.
• Student Loan Debt — Resources to help lower — or even eliminate — your student loan debt.
• Getting on the Path to Student Loan Forgiveness — Find out what steps to take—and what pitfalls to avoid—to get as much of your student loan debt forgiven as possible.
• 4 Things Educators Need to Know About Student Loan Debt and Forgiveness Programs — Here’s what you need to know to save the most money.
• Student Debt Support — NEA is working to ensure education is affordable and accessible to all. By working to cancel student debt and improve forgiveness programs, we can make sure everybody who wants to learn and grow can do so — without exceptions.

Thanks to Bret Schulte and Kim Martin for editing.

Jan. 10, 2022, op-ed version of our statement “Stay the Course on Covid? Far from Enough“

Should the University of Arkansas just “stay the course”? Its union, UA-Fayetteville Education Association/Local 965, rejects the leadership’s plan, announced Jan. 6, to “stay the course” from the last six months of 2021 for the first part of the new year. Their plan is despite a crush of active covid-19 cases in Arkansas — more than 44,000 as of Jan. 6, yet climbing as preK-12 and post-secondary schools reopen for spring semester.

The masking and social-distancing rules for students and employees that began mid-June 2021 proved to be insufficient. That they have been essentially unenforced demonstrates at best misplaced priorities.

The Jan. 6 announcement from Interim Chancellor Charles Robinson, Interim Provost Terry Martin and UAPD Capt. for Emergency Management Matt Mills acknowledges that other campuses in Arkansas are either delaying the resumption of classes or teaching online initially, according to a Jan. 6 Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article.

The statement details how UA will be “staying the course” of fall semester including (1) in-person instruction beginning as scheduled Tuesday, Jan. 18, (2) an indoor masking mandate unless a minimum of 6 feet between individuals is maintained, and (3) to “strongly encourage” a full course of vaccinations. The university will continue a policy of 10 days of isolation or quarantine for infected individuals.

“Strongly encouraged” isn’t getting the job done.

While the UA mandates masks on the Fayetteville campus, the faculty and staff have found enforcement to be nearly impossible. Some students openly defied faculty requests to wear masks; others brought food and drink to classrooms as excuses to keep their masks down from their mouths. For many faculty members, the lack of real enforcement tools made any attempt to police the mandate impossible while wasting valuable teaching time. Furthermore, the university granted a loophole, insisting that a mask was required only if 6-foot social distancing was not possible. The result was confusion in classrooms, hallways and buildings such as Mullins Library, which became a virtual mask-free zone to the dismay of many employees.

“The indoor mask mandate should be made absolute, eliminating the ‘where social distancing can’t be maintained’ wiggle room,” one professor said. Many students seem to interpret this to mean they have to wear their masks in classrooms but nowhere else indoors. So one encounters unmasked snifflers and heavy breathers in restrooms, on crowded stairways and elsewhere.”

The University of Arkansas can and must do better. As a vaccination mandate continues to be considered unviable for the campus, other measures up to that point must be enacted.

• The “where social distancing cannot be maintained” loophole must be removed.
• More coronavirus testing stations are needed on campus.
• Masks and disinfectants should be available not merely upon request but stocked in every classroom.
• More inducements for vaccination should be created.
• Ban food and drink from academic buildings, including Mullins Library, except for offices and facilities such as break rooms.
• More support from administrators and campus police to enforce the masking mandate by removing the non-compliant.
• Faculty and staff at greatest risk must be allowed — with minimal delays in paperwork — to work remotely until the wave of covid-19 infections subside.

The University of Arkansas boasted Jan. 6 of its 11th-in-the-nation ranking from Newsweek for its online degree programs, yet the administration refused to allow faculty the choice to teach remotely for the fall 2021 semester, frequently citing the argument that ours is not a virtual campus.

Yet in the initial throes of the pandemic, the university moved to online learning in March 2020, continuing through May 2021. The University of Arkansas can go virtual and does go virtual — quite well — when virtual learning suits its purposes. Now, the purpose is more urgent than ratings and tuition dollars. The priority is to keep our campus safe and healthy. As Newsweek pointed out, the University of Arkansas can do that while still delivering a 5-star education.

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Bret Schulte is president and Ben Pollock secretary of UA-Fayetteville Education Association/Local 965. Schulte is an associate professor and Pollock a web manager on campus.

UA-Fayetteville Education Association/Local 965 rejects the University of Arkansas’s newly announced plan to “stay the course” from the last six months, despite an unprecedented crush of active Covid-19 cases in Arkansas — more than 44,000 as of Jan. 6, and climbing. Staying the course amounts to continuing the mask mandate on campus — a mandate that faculty and staff have found nearly impossible to enforce.

Some students openly defied faculty requests to wear masks; others brought food and drink to classrooms as excuses to keep their masks down from their mouths. For many faculty members, the lack of real enforcement tools made any attempt to police the mandate impossible, while wasting valuable teaching time. Furthermore, the university granted a loophole, insisting that a mask was required only if social distancing was not possible. The result was confusion in classrooms, hallways, and buildings such as Mullins Library, which became a virtual mask-free zone to the dismay of many employees.

The University of Arkansas can and must do better:

• The “where social distancing cannot be maintained” loophole must be removed.
• More coronavirus testing stations are needed on campus.
• Masks and disinfectants should be available not merely upon request but stocked in every classroom.
• More inducements for vaccination should be created.
• Food and drink be banned from academic buildings, including Mullins Library, except for offices and facilities such as break rooms.
• More support from administrators and campus police to enforce the masking mandate by removing the non-compliant.
• Faculty and staff at greatest risk must be allowed — with minimal delays in paperwork — to work remotely until the wave of Covid-19’s omicron variant subsides.

The University of Arkansas this week boasted of its ranking from Newsweek for its online degree programs in the announcement “U of A Ranks 11th in Nation in First Newsweek Survey of Online Students,” yet the administration refused to allow faculty the choice to teach remotely for the fall 2021 semester, frequently citing the specious argument that ours is not a virtual campus.

Yet in the initial throes of the pandemic, the university moved to online learning in March 2020, continuing through May 2021. The University of Arkansas can go virtual and does go virtual — quite well — when virtual learning suits its purposes. Now, the purpose is more urgent than ratings and tuition dollars. The purpose is to keep our campus safe and healthy. And as Newsweek pointed out, the University of Arkansas can do that while still delivering a 5-star education.

For immediate release. For information contact Professor Bret Schulte, Local 965 president.

Resolution on Allowing University of Arkansas Employees the Choice to Work Remotely

Whereas, the Covid-19 global pandemic has killed at least 6,704 Arkansans, including 400 in Washington County, since the late winter of 2020 (“Tracking Coronavirus in Arkansas: Latest Map and Case Count,” The New York Times, link updates periodically);

Whereas, Covid-19 has infected at least 436,000 Arkansans, including more than 38,000 in Washington County (ibid.);

Whereas, in the week starting August 15, more Arkansans were in the hospital than at any time since the pandemic began (ibid.);

Whereas, the Delta Variant of Covid-19 that is the dominant variant in Arkansas releases 1260 times more viral particles than earlier variants (“Northwest Arkansas Health Officials Weigh In on Breakthrough Cases of Covid-19,” Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Aug. 15, 2021);

Whereas, “breakthrough infections” among fully vaccinated account for 15% of the cases in Arkansas (ibid.); 

Whereas, on July 30, 2021, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson declared “a statewide state of disaster emergency related to public health, resulting from the catastrophic statewide impact of the Delta Variant of COVID-19 on the healthcare system of Arkansas” (Executive Order to Declare a Statewide Public Health Emergency for the Purpose of Meeting and Mitigating the Impact of COVID-19, 21-14, July 29, 2021, Office of Gov. Asa Hutchinson);

Whereas, the University of Arkansas is prohibited from requiring students and employees to receive one of the three readily available and safe Covid-19 vaccines, even though vaccines have been required in the past (most recently MMR in the winter of 2019-2020) and Governor Hutchinson has declared that widespread vaccination is the best way to mitigate the effects of Covid-19; 

Whereas, University of Arkansas faculty and staff have demonstrated the ability to advance the university’s primary missions of research and education while working remotely;

Whereas, certain employees of the University of Arkansas fall into high-risk mortality categories if they become infected with Covid-19;

Whereas, certain employees are the primary caregivers of children under 12, who are ineligible for vaccinations, and other high-risk groups;

Whereas, the University of Arkansas’s efforts to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 on campus have been inadequate: 

• The vaccine incentive program for students was not launched until August 11, well after the date necessary for the vaccine to take full effect by the August 23 start of classes, and does not require participants to vaccinate until the eve of the September 1 drawing (COVID-19 Vaccination Incentives, UA Pat Walker Health Center);
• Even though a study published by the Centers for Disease Control found that the Greek Life Rush in the fall of 2020 was a major spreader of the virus on the University of Arkansas campus, the University has allowed sorority and fraternity Rush to take place this year during a governor-declared state public health emergency (“Participation in Fraternity and Sorority Activities and the Spread of COVID-19 Among Residential University Communities — Arkansas, August 21–September 5, 2020,” CDC Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, Jan. 8, 2021, and “CDC Study Suggests Virus Fueled by Greek Life at UA,” Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Jan. 8, 2021);
• The University is allowing the Bikes, Blues and BBQ organization to hold a motorcycle rally on campus that in recent years has brought in 200,000 to 250,000 visitors (“Baum-Walker Stadium to Host Bikes, Blues & BBQ Main Stage – Main Stage Relocates to UA Stadium,” Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, Aug. 16 2021, and “Police Release Stats for 2019 Bikes, Blues & BBQ Motorcycle Rally,” Fayetteville Flyer, Sept. 30, 2019).

NOW, THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED that, since the University of Arkansas has not taken common-sense steps to mitigate the spread of Covid-19 on campus and protect its employees, UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965 supports employee choice in continuing to work remotely — be they faculty or staff — out of overwhelming concern for their personal well-being;

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the university require mandatory Covid-19 testing for students who take part in labs, studios or seminars that last longer 120 minutes per session. 

This resolution was approved at the Aug. 19, 2021, general membership meeting of UA-Fayetteville Education Association / Local 965. Members present in a quorum voted unanimously for the topic points, then compiled by Local officers.