Return Our TAB

Author

My15 atUSC
July 02, 2025

Hi Everyone,

Now that we’ve officially reached July 1st and the peaceful transfer of power is complete- I did hear a few wild theories about President Folt staying on as president- I think we’re all just waiting for the shoe to drop. As I reflected in my poem/video, their failure to lead increasingly seems to be our price to pay.

They can send memos and FAQs that attempt to explain why we’re at this moment- or they could ignore all of this completely and send us celebratory magazines???- but the truth is that most of us (staff) have been busting our butts for decades to find every possible way to save (or secure) each USC dollar entrusted to us. And for decades we’ve watched while others have blown it. Instead of dealing with it head on, they looked to us and took what was sacred. Now it seems like they need to come back for even more.

This past Friday, I was elected President of the USC Staff Assembly. As I’ve shared on LinkedIn, I plan to continue the My15atUSC efforts, and I will try to keep them as separate as possible. At the same time, the TAB fight is also ongoing there as well, as outlined in the USC-Staff-Assembly-Open-Letter-Requesting-the-Reinstatement-of-Tuition-Assistance-Benefits from February 2025, and the response.

It’s only been a few days since my last Newsletter, so I understand if some of you are still recovering. But I write today to encourage you to send an email, now that we’re confidently in to the interim, to the presidential search facilitators. The purpose of the email is to remind them of our efforts to reinstate TAB in full, and to share our message with the search committee and prospective presidents. I have shared my letter at the bottom of this “not-a-Newsletter”.

Even just a simple one will do:

  • “We just want back what was earned, and what USC promised us.” OR

  • “As a member of the My15atUSC community, I am hoping for a President who will restore our TAB in full”.

You can also copy/paste the full email below, if it resonates, or you can write your own. I used the subject line “Return our TAB”. I ask that you Cc me if you’re comfortable doing so.

Send to:

Cc:

I’m hopeful you can find just a few minutes to do this over the next few days, this weekend, or early next week. I know a lot of folks are traveling, vacationing, closing FY25, or just mentally exhausted, but 5 minutes spent may make a big difference in helping the incoming President as well as those on the search committee understand our expectations. Thanks just for considering it.

I hope you have an enjoyable 4th of July weekend. We will be headed up to Leo Carrillo for a week of camping- and renting an RV for the first time, so I guess not actually camping?- but I hope to be back in touch again later this month. If you get bored while I’m gone, head over to Instagram and look at, and like, the My15atUSC posts.

Take care, and be in touch.

Phil

My letter to the Presidential Search consultants.


---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Philip Turner
Date: Tue, Jul 1, 2025 at 10:24 PM
Subject: Return Our TAB
To: [email protected] <[email protected]>
Cc: My15 atUSC <[email protected]>

Dear USC Presidential Search Feedback Facilitators,

In October of 2024, USC secretly and quietly canceled the vested Tuition Assistance Benefits (TAB) of countless current, former, and retired employees, each who had served this institution for a minimum of 15 years. This decision was made without any consultation or meaningful discussion with the affected employees. Formal written notification was not provided to the USC community until a weak later, when USC walked back just some of the changes. To this day, there are members of the Trojan Family that are still not aware that their dependents are now ineligible for portions of the tuition benefit. This is despite a promise made by USC on the day the cuts were announced to do exactly that. All of this is shameful.

This decision has had a devastating impact on USC’s employees. Lives were planned around this benefit. Careers were forever altered, and families forever changed. In response to the TAB cuts, and because of USC's failure to engage with its own employees on this matter directly, I decided to build a community.

My15atUSC is a movement to celebrate, restore, and safeguard the Tuition Assistance Benefit (TAB) as it was promised to USC staff, faculty and their families. While the administration's attention may currently be elsewhere, it is important to know that our community will continue to advocate for the full restoration of the benefits we have earned. We use you as a vehicle to carry this message forward to those who will be making the decision, and ultimately the new president, should the cuts remain in place.

Regarding the TAB decision:

  • Legal jargon and secretive decisions are the opposite of Excellence.

  • The inability of our dependents to get graduate degrees when countless have before is the opposite of Equity.

  • Breaking the promise you made during recruitment to multiple generations of Trojans is the opposite of Integrity.

There are many things I desire in the next president of USC, but first and foremost, I want one who will have the humility to walk back a terrible decision and acknowledge that it betrayed our Unifying Values. That would show Accountability and begin the healing amongst our longest serving Trojans. As a community, “we just want back what was earned, and what USC promised us.”

I hope this will be shared with the appropriate review board, and any additional responses to be included/counted in support of this message.

Sincerely,

Phil Turner

Current Staff, 16+ years

NOTE: I removed the following paragraph explaining my intentions from the version pasted above. It was originally towards the end. I have removed it simply to make your copy/pasting of the email above easier.

In addition to my comments above, a letter will go out to our My15atUSC community tomorrow morning. In that, I will encourage them to do the same, to email you specific to the restoration of our TAB. Our community may use copied language that I provide, or they may send personalized emails, but know that they have done so willingly. I will encourage them to Cc [email protected] if they feel comfortable. I don't anticipate the response to be “overwhelming”, but I felt it appropriate to notify you in advance.