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APSCUF is kicking off a new campaign to help us advocate for funding for our state-owned universities. We’re asking students and alumni to share their video testimonies about what a truly affordable college education means to them and to tag the videos with #fundPAfuture. We will share the stories with those who make decisions about funding and costs for our universities.

Please share APSCUF’s social-media posts (on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram) about this campaign with students and alumni. Click here for details about the project.

We wish you health and happiness this season and in the new year.

The APSCUF office is closed for the holidays Dec. 24–31, 2021. Staff will be accessible again Monday, Jan. 3, 2022.

State APSCUF is accepting applications for its summer 2022 internship and scholarship. Information and forms for both are available at APSCUF.org/students.

APSCUF offers a paid summer internship in government and public relations for undergraduates attending a Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education university. We are seeking a junior or senior majoring in political science, communication, journalism or a related field to work with our Harrisburg-based government-relations and communication department. Learn more about the internship — including from past interns’ perspectives — and download forms at APSCUF.org/students/#internship. Application deadline is Feb. 14, 2022.

“The APSCUF internship taught me to utilize the skills I have and how I can apply them to a diverse range of situations,” wrote our 2021 intern, Melissa Stough, as their internship concluded. “If you do not apply to this internship, you are doing yourself a disservice.”

APSCUF offers a $3,000 scholarship to relatives of APSCUF or APSCURF members in good standing. The 2022 application must be postmarked or received electronically no later than 11:59 p.m. June 1, 2022. Award recipient(s) will be notified by Aug. 1, 2022. Learn more at APSCUF.org/students/#scholarship.

APSCUF President Dr. Jamie Martin discussed faculty retirements, consolidation and state funding on an episode of “Pennsylvania Newsmakers” recorded this month.

“The solution is appropriate levels of funding for our students and for our universities,” she told host Dr. G. Terry Madonna, a past APSCUF president. “It becomes an issue of, ‘Are we going to value this?’ Do we care about our young students, especially those who are first-generation, maybe from middle- to lower-income families and from underrepresented groups? Do we care about their opportunities as they’re moving into higher education or not? So, it is a matter of funding, and without that, we’re probably going to see additional kinds of cuts and a lack of opportunities.”

Click here or on the embedded video above to watch the full interview.

APSCUF President Dr. Jamie Martin talked about consolidation, retrenchment and retirements during an episode of “Behind the Headlines” recorded last week. She discussed low faculty morale, how APSCUF is still trying to understand the rationale for consolidation, and unanswered questions about programs, online classes, athletics and more.

“I think there are just all of those questions, and we’re moving down this train track pretty quickly without the answers to those,” Martin said of consolidation. “And I recognize we can’t have answers all at once, but those are big decisions that we don’t yet have.”

Click here or on the embedded video above to watch the full interview.