“Can this possibly be real?” one colleague asked me when she saw the tweet.
It sure is, as Temple officials have confirmed. Many commenters in the Tweet thread suggested that this is downright illegal. And the national coalition Higher Education Labor United put out a statement declaring that “removing tuition remission would destroy [Temple University] — grad workers would be forced to leave en masse. This is an unenforceable and absolutely vile threat. This is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Way to make it clear WHY [the student union] is striking.”
We reached out to Temple administrators to see if we could sort all this out, and their responses couldn’t have been more straightforward.
“Any Temple employee that decides to strike forfeits their pay and complete benefits package,” explained Temple University senior vice president and chief operating officer Ken Kaiser. “Tuition remission is part of the TUGSA benefit package. Therefore, they are no longer eligible.”
READ: Victor Fiorillo in Philadelphia, “Temple Student Strike Turns Ugly as School Ends Some Tuition Aid“