Dear TRIO and GEAR UP Community:

Today is THE DAY to call the White House and express your support for TRIO and GEAR UP.  According to today’s National Journal, the President’s schedule is open to resume talks on the deficit negotiations so we must be vocal TODAY:

AN OPEN SCHEDULE. If ever there were a day for possible secret meetings and staff talks, it is TODAY. The White House has kept the president’s schedule completely open, acknowledging only that he will meet with his senior advisers and get his usual daily briefing in the morning. In the past, when a schedule has been this open, it has usually meant the president wants to work the phones or sneak negotiators into the White House, as he did Sunday when House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., stopped by for some weekend deficit talks.

It is important that we flood the White House with calls and e-mails TODAY expressing our support for first-generation and low-income students, learners with disabilities, Veterans, and adult learners by saying – President Obama, do not jeopardize the TRIO and GEAR UP programs in the ongoing debt negotiations!

1.      Call the White House at (202) 456-1111.

2.      E-mail the President at http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact.

3.      Grab your co-workers, students, parents, alumni, friends, and neighbors and get them to do the same!!!

Please note that phone lines are only staffed from 9am – 5pm, Eastern Time. Also, lines may be busy for certain parts of the day. Please call back! It’s critical that our voices are heard!

Heather Valentine
COE staff