Wednesday, August 5, 2009

Latest Update - Rally 2pm Thursday

Good evening all,

The day of reckoning for State Senator John Taylor has arrived; the politician who strongly opposes the bill which will provide Temple University $175 million in state and federal funding it is expected to receive, will experience the strength of the Temple University community.

This funding is crucial to the university in many ways; mainly to keep YOUR tuition rate in check. If this funding does not come thru, Temple students will be forced to eat a 45% tuition increase of roughly $5,000 per year. This amount is tacked onto the current tuition rate which currently sits in the top ten of the most expensive public universities in the country.

Tomorrow (or today if it's Thursday and your reading this) there will be a rally in front of the Student Center at 13th & Montgomery at 2:00pm. I ask you all to please attend this rally and show your support. Local news media has been contacted of this event, and we will publicly shame State Sen. John Taylor so that all in the Philadelphia area are witness.

With the news media present, our goal would be to let everyone in the Philadelphia area know that this individual, State Senator John Taylor is holding Temple students and their families financial situation hostage. This politician has messed with the wrong university with this ordeal. It is our goal to let him know the definition of career suicide if he does not change his stance.

The time to act on this is now. The more people that come out in support for this, the more our voice is heard. When people turn on the 6pm news, the 11pm news, the Friday morning news, or turn the page in the Friday newspaper; it will be our goal to put this individual to shame and let it be known that he strongly supports a 45% tuition increase for Temple students during the roughest economic climate in our generation. The vote isn't expected until Monday so now is our chance before the story gets tucked away during the weekend.

So please, do not forget: Thursday, 2:00pm in front of the Student Center we will meet. We will then march over to his district office on Thompson street and demand that his presence is there. I have spoken to a secretary at his office earlier today and was told that he would be in session tomorrow in Harrisburg. However, I have heard from a reliable source that tomorrow there is not a session for State Senators, such as himself; meaning he will be in the area.

I have received a written response from State Senator Larry Farnese whose name was mentioned in the Daily News article today. He has stated to me that "when a final budget bill comes before the Senate, I will support funding for Temple University."

Another politician who was mentioned in the same article, State Rep. Dennis O'Brien, had a staff member reach out to me and stated that State Rep. O'Brien strongly supports funding for Temple University as well.

As a proud alumni of this university, it upsets me that a bitter politician has such energy devoted in attempting to ruin the academic career of 25,000+ students.

Once again, the time to act is now. Show up to this rally and let your voice be heard. Don't wait until the evening news, or checking out online how the rally went; come to it and be a part of it. There's not much time to act, so decide if $5,000 is worth your time or not.

-Jon

RALLY!

Where: Start:Student Center at 13th & Montgomery (meet outside) End: State Rep. John Taylor's district office: 2901 E. Thompson St. (1 hour walk from campus)

When: 2PM, Thursday August 6

Why: To demonstrate our unwillingness pay a 45% tuition increase at the hands of State Rep. John Taylor withdrawing $175 million in state and federal funding for Temple University.

Goal: To put State Rep. John Taylor to public shame in forcing families and students to such an increase in the roughest economic time of our generation.

Temple students the ball is in your hand. School only starts a few short weeks away, and this tuition increase will be a deciding factor if you or many of your friends will be coming back this upcoming school year.

We will walk from campus to his district office in numbers.
Local news media is contacted and will be on hand.

If you live outside of the city, come to the city.

If you have work, take off for a few hours to attend.

If you have summer class, ask to be excused for this purpose.

Do not decide that you will skip this and wait till see it online or on the nightly news.

Show up and make your voice heard in numbers!

Temple students will NOT be ignored!!

Save Temple Students!

Hello all,

As many of you know, State Representative John Taylor has been working on depriving Temple University of $175 million in state and federal funds that have been allotted towards the university's budget. The reasoning for this is because of Temple's decision to shut-down Northeastern Hospital, which is a part of Temple Hospital's network of hospitals in the area. Temple had shut this hospital down because it was due to lose $15 million this upcoming year.

Without this funding, Temple students will fall victim to the tune of a 45% tuition rate increase. This tuition rate increase comes during the roughest economic conditions of our generation. Temple students as a whole, must speak out about this; and speak out now about this.

State Rep. John Taylor is scheduled to be in Harrisburg for the remainder of the week, but this does not mean that we can not still act and get his undivided attention.

On Thursday, August 6 at 2pm, I am calling for all Temple University students and families to meet at the Student Center on 13th & Montgomery for a demonstration of protest and rally.

We will mobilize at this location and march to Rep. John Taylor's district office located at 2901 E. Thompson St. This location is only a 1 hour walk from the Student Center.

Local news media will be contacted. We will put Rep. John Taylor on blast about his decision to cut this funding from Temple. The more people that show up for this rally, the greater our prescence will be felt. Our power would be measured in numbers.

Come Thursday night and Friday morning newscasts, our goal would to have John Taylor known throughout the Philadelphia area as the politician who is trying to raise Temple students tuition by 45% on such late notice during the roughest economic time that we have seen.

We can do this, it's just a matter of if you truly want this or not.

Signed,
An angry tax-paying citizen.