Help an international Columbia postdoc

Members of Columbia Postdoctoral Workers (CPW-UAW) are supporting a fellow worker burdened with thousands of dollars in unfair health insurance fees during a pandemic. 
 
While working as a Postdoctoral Research Scientist, this researcher applied for and was admitted to the American Language Program (ALP) to learn new academic language skills, a benefit Columbia provides tuition-free for postdocs. However, the worker was not informed that they would be automatically charged a student health insurance fee, along with a number of additional fees as a condition for taking the ALP course. Additionally, they were not informed of any possibility of waiving said costs. As a result, the researcher is left with $3,228.78 in insurance and fees, despite the worker already having health insurance coverage through their position at Columbia. 

The University has been unwilling to reverse this and has since transferred the debt to an outside collections agency,  which has been seeking the return of the full amount. This has led to the disruption of the researcher's work with incessant calls and the agency has even gone so far as to contact the researcher's partner about fulfilling the payment. This has resulted in significant anxiety and stress to the worker and their family for over a year.

 This member is in need of support to pay this unfair financial cost in the midst of a pandemic. All funds collected will go entirely to the affected worker, and with the excess covering GoFundMe's platform fees (2.9% of the total plus +0.30 cents per credit/debit card-based donation) and being donated to a designated charity. No funds will be collected by CPW-UAW.