Internship Support Payments

[OneofMany]

I think the other thing we should not overlook is that this month's stipend is late - with no news as to when it will show up...

This is highly unusual with an organization that has, up until this point, operated with clockwork-like precision.

There may be serious problems at SMART that we are not aware of, the program itself may be in danger.

[panacea66]

I contacted the President, Secretary of Defense, my Senators and Congressman, and ASEE today. I urge you all to do that too. Also, I think there is some negligence here and possible breech of contract. If anyone wants to look into a class-action, I am game.

Maybe it would be a good idea to post all the links/addresses needed to contact all the parties mentioned above. It might be worth making all the contact information easily available so more people are tempted to write. No one else is going to fight for this if we don't but it's going to take a lot of students writing letters for them to listen to us.

Also, I think the famous e-mail went into the SPAM box for what seems like half of us. I wonder if those people are even aware of the situation. I only found out when a friend contacted me.

[Guest1]

Maybe it would be a good idea to post all the links/addresses needed to contact all the parties mentioned above. It might be worth making all the contact information easily available so more people are tempted to write. No one else is going to fight for this if we don't but it's going to take a lot of students writing letters for them to listen to us.

Also, I think the famous e-mail went into the SPAM box for what seems like half of us. I wonder if those people are even aware of the situation. I only found out when a friend contacted me.

Go to your state senators website and click the link for "help with federal agencies" (every senator and representative seems to have one).

Print out relevant pages from the SMART handbook as well as the contract you signed, sign the privacy act agreement, and then send it to your local office. You should get contacted pretty quickly (a couple weeks).

[nothappyeither]

I'm not happy about this either. Has anyone written an email of complaint or thought about legal recourse?

[Guest]

I contacted the President, Secretary of Defense, my Senators and Congressman, and ASEE today. I urge you all to do that too. Also, I think there is some negligence here and possible breech of contract. If anyone wants to look into a class-action, I am game.

Maybe it would be a good idea to post all the links/addresses needed to contact all the parties mentioned above. It might be worth making all the contact information easily available so more people are tempted to write. No one else is going to fight for this if we don't but it's going to take a lot of students writing letters for them to listen to us.

Also, I think the famous e-mail went into the SPAM box for what seems like half of us. I wonder if those people are even aware of the situation. I only found out when a friend contacted me.

President
http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/submi ... d-comments
Senate
http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_i ... rs_cfm.cfm
Congress
https://writerep.house.gov/writerep/welcome.shtml
DoD
https://kb.defense.gov/app/ask/session/ ... SjFHVGs%3D
ASEE
aseeexec@asee.org

[smart_hopeful]

As a morbidly curious onlooker who might have the opportunity(?) to accept a SMART fellowship this year, would one of you mind posting the text of the email? I wonder if it contains any hints of why this problem has cropped up.

Also as a person with some family experience in politics, I can assure you that contacting the president is completely useless. Contacting your senator is better, but still a crapshoot. Contacting your representative is easily the most effective - they still have quite a bit of pull, but they're much easier to get in contact with.

[Guest]

Anyone think we should call 20/20 or ABC or something to "whisleblow"?

[Guest]

I would second what _hopeful said...contact your House and Senate representatives ---- the representatives in YOUR voting district. They pay more attention to their constituents. If you are not in their area they will be less interested (or not at all interested) in hearing your complaint.

[Guest1]

As a morbidly curious onlooker who might have the opportunity(?) to accept a SMART fellowship this year, would one of you mind posting the text of the email? I wonder if it contains any hints of why this problem has cropped up.

Also as a person with some family experience in politics, I can assure you that contacting the president is completely useless. Contacting your senator is better, but still a crapshoot. Contacting your representative is easily the most effective - they still have quite a bit of pull, but they're much easier to get in contact with.

The text of the email is in full earlier in this thread (page 1, I believe).

The reason SMART recipients are up in arms is this reduces the SMART scholarship from a generous stipend to just about equal to most university research assistantships or part time jobs. Except with those jobs you have no commitment after graduation. This is bad because what they signed up for is not what they will be getting. That should trouble most people who have a sense of fairness and morality.

If anything I would say: be grateful, fellow participants, that this was sprung on you when you were still a student with a relatively small amount to pay back, rather than when you graduated and were ready to get your job. There is more than one HR rep in the DoD who has learned you are REQUIRED to take whatever they present you once you have finished your schooling, and they will present you with insulting offers well below OPMs qualification standards because you are a steal at bargain prices. The sad thing is the SMART Program encourages this behavior because if you don't enter Phase 2, it's a black mark on their program. They will side with the SF and tell you to take the offer or pay it back.

I suppose in the end moves like this helps the program focus on getting students who love bureaucracy and low pay, which when you come to the end of your schooling you will find that the DoD specializes in. All high-tech research and cool stuff is actually performed by mega defense contractors anyway.

Don't like it? Contact your Senator and House of Representatives and be prepared to withdraw from the program.

[rathernotbenamednow]

Fellow Participants, I have drafted a letter that I plan on sending to everyone possible who may make a difference with this, senators, representatives, the president, ect. I would like feedback from anyone who has it. And if you would like, take the letter, edit it to match your situation and send it to everyone you can. It is currently addressed to the president and signed generically.

With this at least, I hope many of my fellow participants will join me and express how upset we are at the sudden and painful changes.

Text of the letter follows

###########################################

Mr. President,

I am not sure if you are familiar with the SMART Scholarship, but it is a scholarship-for-service program being run by the DoD and the ASEE with the goal of recruiting the best and brightest students for civilian research positions in the DoD. The program pays your tuition and pays you a monthly stipend to enable you to focus on school without worrying about money, and for multi-year participants it pays internship support payments of $1,200 per week while they intern at their facilities over the summer, in order for them to afford adequate housing, pay for travel expenses, purchase food and afford anything else required while living near and working for their base over the summer.

I was lucky enough to have received this scholarship this past summer. It has given me an amazing opportunity that is allowing me to finish my education and is giving me a chance to serve my country. I will be completing my Bachelors and my Masters with funding from this program and will be working for the DoD for three years after my graduation to pay back what they have given to me.

I was alarmed to find out on Tuesday March 20th, that this summer the internship support payments will be reduced by 50% to $600 per week, while working for my facility, and that during the summer of 2013, the internship support payments will be reduced to $0 per week. This news comes to me 8 months after I have signed my contract and become a part of the program. While I will be able to manage this summer, next summer will certainly be a monetary loss with all of the expenses that I will incur while working for my facility. Overall I will be receiving approximately $21,000 less than what I had been promised when I signed up and what I had planned to earn.

This program is meant to bring in the best and brightest student into the DoD and to encourage them to keep working for the DoD after their service commitments have ended. This sudden and dramatic change has left a bad taste in my mouth with regards to how the US government operates, something that will most likely drive me to seek employment elsewhere when my commitment is up. This program is still an amazing opportunity, but if this is the reputation of promising one thing and delivering far less is what the country’s best scholarship programs is building, I have a feeling that it will not be attracting the talent that is aims to, and that those who have already joined will build feelings of resentment towards the program and towards working for the US government.

I thank you for hearing my concerns and hope you will help to stop this from harming the government’s reputation,
John Smith

[Guest]

Has anyone actually talked to their Cohort Administrator since this went down, or about the missing March stipend payment?

[NowPoor]

Has anyone actually talked to their Cohort Administrator since this went down, or about the missing March stipend payment?

I wasn't able to get in touch with my CA today. How convenient...

[GeorgeBush]

As soon as anyone hears back about possible legal actions, please post to this discussion board. I'm not going down without a fight on this one.

[Guest1]

Fellow Participants, I have drafted a letter that I plan on sending to everyone possible who may make a difference with this, senators, representatives, the president, ect. I would like feedback from anyone who has it. And if you would like, take the letter, edit it to match your situation and send it to everyone you can. It is currently addressed to the president and signed generically.

Might I suggest you remove salary numbers. Replace them with percentages. Percentages convey the message you are trying to share. Giving numbers will cause some to say "well you should be grateful you're getting that much money..." Giving percentages causes everyone to say "Wow... that's messed up."

Also, instead of making it sound like "this is money I'm losing out on", convey the message that you signed up for the scholarship based on a certain set of conditions. Those conditions changed. You would have never signed up for the scholarship had it been presented with the conditions that have been set forth.

Also, I would let your cohort administrator know you intend to write your congressman. Writing your senator and representative (not so much the president) will be akin to kicking over a beehive. You will have to be ready to stomach what comes out of the DoD after you involve your congressmen. If SMART sees that it's going to be a substantial amount of letters, they may try and smooth things over internally.

[Guest]

Emailed CNN

[Guest]

Should have emailed Fox news...

[Guest2]

Here's the 2011 promotional video (read: AFTER we accepted the scholarship and attended orientation) that advertises "Paid Internships."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfvA1CDBTAk

[guest2]

My contact at my SF thinks it is a breach of contract as well. He is going to try to get information for me, but said that as a SF they don't have any control. He suggests that as recipients we should unify and try to develop a plan.

[Guest]

Isn't that what we are doing?

[Guest]

Here's the 2011 promotional video (read: AFTER we accepted the scholarship and attended orientation) that advertises "Paid Internships."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfvA1CDBTAk

Technically you still get your stipend during the internship so it is paid. That argument won't work. The written contract I signed specifically stated internship expenses were covered. Also, during my internship they told us, after we had already signed the contracts, that we could leave the program, and thus violate the contract, without repercussion if we weren't interested due to something we learned during the orientation. That might mean that there was a verbal modification of the contract, which is legally binding, in which a $1200/wk internship support payment was promised. They also never stated that it may change at some point. If they had said in the orientation that it would be $100 dollars, I would have left. Therefore I continued in the program based on a verbal indication of compensation. I believe this makes it a breach of contract. Does anyone else recall these terms given at orientation?

I think they should either grandfather us in or let us out of our agreement without penalty. If we go to court and win, they will either have to pay us back for the lost funds or possibly more. I don't think you can sue the federal government for punitive damages. So no pain and suffering pay. But, that's not the point.

[Guest]

Here's the 2011 promotional video (read: AFTER we accepted the scholarship and attended orientation) that advertises "Paid Internships."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfvA1CDBTAk

Technically you still get your stipend during the internship so it is paid. That argument won't work. The written contract I signed specifically stated internship expenses were covered. Also, during my internship they told us, after we had already signed the contracts, that we could leave the program, and thus violate the contract, without repercussion if we weren't interested due to something we learned during the orientation. That might mean that there was a verbal modification of the contract, which is legally binding, in which a $1200/wk internship support payment was promised. They also never stated that it may change at some point. If they had said in the orientation that it would be $100 dollars, I would have left. Therefore I continued in the program based on a verbal indication of compensation. I believe this makes it a breach of contract. Does anyone else recall these terms given at orientation?

I think they should either grandfather us in or let us out of our agreement without penalty. If we go to court and win, they will either have to pay us back for the lost funds or possibly more. I don't think you can sue the federal government for punitive damages. So no pain and suffering pay. But, that's not the point.

OOPS: "during my orientation" not "internship"

[Sucker Punched]

I am willing to bet the reason they are holding back our payment this month is because they knew they were going to do this and didn't want to pay anyone who decided to jump ship. This is a horribly shady tactic. They should be absolutely ashamed of themselves. I guess ethics go out the window when policy makers and lawyers get involved and start providing advice on how to screw people.

[panacea66]

My contact at my SF thinks it is a breach of contract as well. He is going to try to get information for me, but said that as a SF they don't have any control. He suggests that as recipients we should unify and try to develop a plan.

Funny thing is, I still don't think a lot of people even know about this. Out of the 5 people I contacted, 4 didn't know anything about it. The emails went to everyone's SPAM box for some reason.

We definitely need to unify somehow. I'm not sure what the best way is.
I'm not sure how many people know about the e-mail or this forum.

[Guest]

My contact at my SF thinks it is a breach of contract as well. He is going to try to get information for me, but said that as a SF they don't have any control. He suggests that as recipients we should unify and try to develop a plan.

Funny thing is, I still don't think a lot of people even know about this. Out of the 5 people I contacted, 4 didn't know anything about it. The emails went to everyone's SPAM box for some reason.

We definitely need to unify somehow. I'm not sure what the best way is.
I'm not sure how many people know about the e-mail or this forum.

Tell all your university FB friends to tell anyone they know with SMART. Tell all your SMART friends to tell all their SMART friends. Also, this will not be an issue in about...oh, a month when people get 1/2 of what they expect. Then the poop will hit the fan. I think we should develop a plan of action now so that the newly pissed off people can just jump on board. Anyone heard back from a lawyer yet?

[tdavis]

Has anyone gotten there monthly stipend yet? By the way everyone we all need to act professional in this manner. Not only is it common courtesy to people who read this. But anything post on the internet or email is discoverable during any kind of legal confrontation.