CLICK HERE to register for the Student Debt Clinics and read below how it can change your life!

The Adjunct Multiplier has made a tremendous difference for our Adjunct Faculty. As contingent faculty, we experience vulnerabilities and insecurities due to the lack of reasonable assurance of continued employment. Student loan payments add to the burden on Adjunct Faculty. The landmark settlement on October 13, 2021 Weingarten v. DeVos requires an official review and reconsideration by the U.S. Department of Education of Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) applicants who were previously denied relief.

Adjunct Faculty and Local AFT 1521 Member, Dr. Bettye J. Ford learned about the Adjunct Multiplier after participating in one of AFT 1521 Student Debt Clinics. Due to the PSLF limited waiver, Dr. Ford received credit for years of past payment including payments counts using the credit hour multiplier teaching as an Adjunct Faculty at Los Angeles Southwest College. Dr. Ford shared the news from FedLoan Servicing that $464,308.95 of her student loan debt will be forgiven!

AFT is advocating for the U.S. Department of Education to adopt the 3.35 credit hour multiplier as the national standard for counting credit hours for PSLF. In addition, for the purposes of qualifying for Public Service Loan Forgiveness, AFT is advocating for the U.S. Department of Education to revise the definition of “full-time” for PSLF to simply mean 30 hours a week, removing the option for employers to define full-time as more than that. These two changes would mean that adjuncts who teach three 3.0 credit courses at one institution could automatically be certified as full-time. AFT Higher Education is committed to ensuring that Adjunct Faculty who are doing full-time work will be able to access benefits that are available to them despite our employers’ insistence on calling us “part-time!”

Sign up to join one of our AFT 1521 Student Debt Clinics to find out more about how you can get credit for past payments, credit for forbearance months and get on the path to full student loan forgiveness!

In Unity,

Dr. Jessica Saint-Paul, DMSc, PA, MPH, MCHES®
Lead, AFT1521 Student Debt Clinic Trainer
jspAFT1521@gmail.com