The Public Student Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program forgives loans for those who work for a nonprofit or government institution. But one of the requirements to qualify for PSLF is that you work 30 hours or more per week.

This prevents many adjunct faculty from receiving the loan forgiveness that could change their lives.

There is a solution. Employers can voluntarily use a multiplier to help adjunct faculty reach the hours required to qualify for the program.

CSU-AAUP and the 4Cs both wrote to CSCU system President Terrence Cheng asking the system to implement this change to help adjunct faculty, particularly before the PSLF waiver ends on Oct. 31.

Thankfully, the system agreed to the change. For adjunct faculty, each credit taught will be worth 3.35 hours per week. While this will not solve the problem for everyone, it will help those who teach at multiple campuses reach the requirements for PSLF.

The two higher education unions also distributed a petition for this issue which received more than 200 signatures.

Thank you to those who signed the petition to help our adjunct colleagues.