January Pay

[Guest558]

Does anyone think the hiring freeze is to blame for the lack of payment?

[Guest48]

I wrote the program office to ask if this would impact our February payment and they have not written back (surprise). Has anyone else tried to get this information?

I emailed my CA and she said that they do not foresee any problems with the February stipend and they expect the remaining 40% of the January stipend to arrive soon.

I hope "soon" means yesterday. :)

[fish_]

@guest558: the hiring freeze is a direct result of the federal budget problem. the delay of payments is probably due to the same reason, but i don't think it is documented.

[Ed_Mo]

I think it is now about time to start writing our elected officials about this issue. I suggest writing our congressmen, Senators, the DOD department, and the white house.

What do you guys think?

[MDW_MDW]

I've been in the program for a little over 2 years. Previously there was only one time we didn't get paid. That time we had a couple days notice, which was followed by frequent updates until we actually got paid 13 days later. During the whole process we were told that a legitimate mistake had been made and I have no reason to believe otherwise.

The problem I have right now is that we have NO IDEA when we're getting the rest of our money and they don't seem to be updating us on this. If it were me in charge, out of mere compassion for the situation I would give daily updates.

I can corroborate. I'm finishing my 5th year in grad school w/ the program. I can recall maybe 3-4 stipend delays including this one; most others were associated with changes in Program Mgmt. Its coming, but I agree that the uncertainty is a real pain.

My sense from the forum and my SF is that the current Congressional budget gridlock is causing a lot of a**hole tightening for day-to-day operations while SFs wait for the other shoe to drop.

Time to call your congressman? Was pretty effective in getting a repeal of the 2012 internship support reduction.

[Guest3]

I say we start to contact ASEE directly as well as write our local congressman (the latter of which I have already done). Doesn't ASEE accounting or the ASEE financial department control the money flow for us? NPS is saying that they have sent the money and our checks say 'ASEE' so shouldn't we contact them? I don't really know what else to do but I have a feeling that this will somehow creep into our Feb payment OR keep us from getting the rest of our January stipends until further notice.

[Pay_Please]

If you go the ASEE website and click "Contact Us", it provides a list of the people assigned t SMART program. Just in case anyone wanted to contact them directly.

[concerned_SMART]

T-minus 5 days until February payment is due and they haven't even finished January. I wonder how this will go ...

[Depressed]

It looks as if ASEE is not even sure that we will be paid anything this week. They are hoping for the funds to be received and applied to our accounts by Friday this week, but it is not guaranteed. Terrible news that they aren't completely sure. We will see what happens. Everybody cross your fingers, pray, beg..etc

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. There is still a possibility that we will be paid on Friday. It just isn't guaranteed, and I thought it would most certainly be guaranteed after waiting almost a month.

[Guest]

It looks as if ASEE is not even sure that we will be paid anything this week. They are hoping for the funds to be received and applied to our accounts by Friday this week, but it is not guaranteed. Terrible news that they aren't completely sure. We will see what happens. Everybody cross your fingers, pray, beg..etc

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news. There is still a possibility that we will be paid on Friday. It just isn't guaranteed, and I thought it would most certainly be guaranteed after waiting almost a month.

Did they email you that they're not sure about this week?

[Depressed]

@ Guest

I emailed them asking if they could guarantee our Jan and Feb payments by this week, because I have a major event this weekend, which will not go on if we do not get paid, not to mention BILLS. They replied that they cannot guarantee our payment, but that several DoD people are working on it, and that they hope to have it in by this week.

Also he/she mentioned that ASEE is just the "Middle man". I am not sure who directly pays us, but I would like to find out.

[Guest]

Hmmm...

Well they have never actually guaranteed anything so I'm not sure how worried to be about that.

I have been paying bills with credit cards for two weeks now. Sucks.

[Member1234]

Here are some of the phone numbers available on the ASEE website:
Eric Hurwitt Program Director, SMART (202) 331-3524
Alessandra Dinin Senior Program Manager (202) 331-3525
Erin Steigerwalt Assistant Program Manager, SMART and NSF GRFP (202) 331-3544
Cosmina Tamasag Assistant Program Manager, SMART (202) 331-3544

Maybe we should start contact them directly if the SPO keeps ignoring our emails asking for updates.

[Depressed]

Here are some of the phone numbers available on the ASEE website:
Eric Hurwitt Program Director, SMART (202) 331-3524
Alessandra Dinin Senior Program Manager (202) 331-3525
Erin Steigerwalt Assistant Program Manager, SMART and NSF GRFP (202) 331-3544
Cosmina Tamasag Assistant Program Manager, SMART (202) 331-3544

Maybe we should start contact them directly if the SPO keeps ignoring our emails asking for updates.

I agree with you totally about everybody contacting them for themselves. My correspondence, as posted above, is actually based on an email from one these ASEE-SMART executives. I don't want to badger them, but I think we deserve more answers than what we have been given, and that is why I emailed them.

[living with regret]

I am sure that none of these ASEE people has a PHD in communication (if so they suck at it). People are starving and cannot pay their bills...so much for thinking that this was a great opportunity. I am now living with regrets!

[Guest]

@ depressed

Did you email smart@asee.org or an actual person?

[Depressed]

@Guest I actually emailed one person from the list. I don't mean to be discreet, but I just wouldn't want to name drop on such a public forum lol. I spoke with someone on the list and cc'd smart@asee.org.

@living with regrets I completely agree. This is terrible.

[Guest18]

If someone does or does not get paid on Friday, do you mind posting it on here for others to know? (not everyone, just the first to notice if they do or do not)

[fish_]

you can pound on ASEE all you want, but they can't distribute any money until the funding is provided to them by the gov't. the continuing resolution and pending sequestration has caused funding to DoD to be reduced drastically. they have to conserve what they can because severe cuts may come. planes aren't flying and ships aren't sailing that normally would be doing so. contacting your congeressman and representative is the better bet.

[Broke]

Has anyone received feedback from their elected officials? I'm contacting them today, but not sure what to say. I mean, they need to know who's doing what to who if they aim to actually solve the problem.

[Kaelinth]

I have both contacted my elected representatives as well as the SPO one more time.

I have heard nothing from any of my elected reps. However, I did only email on Sunday.

I did get something somewhat informative back from my CA. It's still a little vague, but better than some of the other responses I've seen go by:

A portion of the January stipend was delayed due to an error that occurred as it made its way through the system. We are told that correcting this is top priority; it has simply taken longer than expected. We anticipate the February stipend will be paid on time, and the remainder of the January stipend should be paid very soon.

I guess we'll see come Friday.

[Guest]

My Feb stipend shows up at smart.asee.org/award

This is not great news, since the Jan stipend shows up in full as well, but it is a tad bit reassuring.

[concerned_SMART]

Just received an email that says we are supposed to get the rest of January and all of February on Friday (from the ASEE office) ... let's hope this "are scheduled to be" is different than the "is anticipated to be" that we received 4 weeks ago ... and then again 2 weeks ago ...

[empty]

Hallelujah... I'll believe it when I see it in my bank account.

[2PM Optimist]

They said "by Friday, 15 February." Has anyone been paid today?