TO: David L. Boren, President
FROM: Cecelia Brown, Chair, OU Faculty
Senate
Loretta E. Bass,
Tuition Waiver Benefit Committee
DATE: February 24, 2009
SUBJECT: Tuition Waiver Benefit Proposal for Faculty
and Staff Dependents
The Faculty Senate Executive
Committee reviewed the report on the Tuition Waiver Benefit
currently available to faculty at the University of Oklahoma
on February 2,
2009. Based on the report findings,
the current tuition waiver benefit does not appeal to faculty, nearly all of
whom have terminal degrees. The Executive Committee recommends: 1) increase the
Tuition Waiver Benefit to cover a full load of tuition but not fees; 2) extend
this heightened benefit to the dependents of both faculty and staff; and 3)
once one and two are completed and OU thereby becomes eligible, join the
Tuition Exchange Program.
This report notes that there is a need to
review and enhance the current tuition benefit, so that it provides a true benefit for faculty. Nearly all faculty have terminal doctoral
degrees, and therefore do not have the need for this benefit as it is currently
written. At present, the current tuition
benefit appeals much more to full-time OU employees, and includes a waiver of
one-half tuition and several fees not to exceed six hours per semester or three
hours per summer session. To provide a true
benefit for faculty, the current tuition waiver benefit should be extended to
faculty members’ spouses and dependents.
A sample peer institution currently doing this is the University of Nebraska,
which offers Employee/Spouse/Dependent
tuition assistance. Faculty members
are offered a maximum of 15 credit hours per year to be divided among the
employee, the spouse, and/or the dependent, as applicable. All regular, 1.00 FTE employees, including
faculty, are eligible, regardless of length of service. Tuition assistance is applied toward 15
credit hours of resident tuition in a 12-month period. This package is administered as a scholarship
as part of the total financial aid package.
The Faculty Senate proposes that the tuition
waiver benefit for dependents be extended to both faculty and staff members’
dependents. Other regional and Big-12
universities (e.g., Oklahoma City University, Tulsa
University, Baylor
University and the University of Nebraska)
have reported the usefulness of an Employee/Spouse/Dependent
tuition assistance as an effective recruitment and retention tool for
faculty and staff. Most faculty and many
staff members move to Oklahoma
with a trailing spouse or partner. The
availability of a tuition benefit to retrain a trailing partner for the local
job market could make the recruiting difference. Additionally, this could mean the marginal
difference in recruiting the children of faculty and staff to attend the
University of Oklahoma, which would, in turn, increase overall enrollment and generate
new funds for OU, as the dependent student would continue to pay fees for all
credit hours as well as all unremitted tuition credit hours exceeding the
current benefit cap of 15 credit hours in a 12-month period.
The
report also notes that an increase in the Tuition Waiver Benefit is needed in
order to remain competitive with other regional institutions. Three nearby regional universities (e.g.,
OCU, Baylor, and Tulsa
University) currently
offer a full-tuition waiver benefit for the dependents of their employees. Additionally, these universities join the
Tuition Exchange Program (TEP), a consortium in which the employees’ dependents
may choose to exercise the benefit from among roughly 600 other private and
public universities (e.g., University of Delaware, University of Florida)
offering similar 30-credit hour employee/spouse/dependent tuition waiver
benefits. Joining the TEP would bring OU
in line with other regional universities, and put OU on the “educational menu”
for the dependents of employees of some 600 other universities.
This proposal anticipates that the
procedures for implementing the dependent tuition benefit would be the same as
for the existing faculty and staff waiver.
In addition to providing a tuition benefit that faculty might actually
use, the dependent tuition benefit would
make OU more competitive with other regional universities, aid recruitment and
retention, increase overall enrollment, and attract a more diverse student body
from the TEP consortium. Further, the
added cost of this benefit is expected to be mitigated by the fact that fees
currently equal or exceed tuition at OU, and over time more students will
likely attend OU through the TEP consortium.
These changes would provide a true
tuition benefit for faculty members and staff, thereby greatly boosting
morale during a time when a cost-of-living pay increase is not possible.
********************
TUITION ASSISTANCE FOR FACULTY,
SPOUSES, & DEPENDENTS
Prepared for: Faculty Senate Executive
Committee
February 2, 2009
Prepared by: Dr. Loretta E. Bass,
Associate Professor of Sociology
and
Ami Reeves, Graduate Student of Sociology
There is
a need for a tuition benefit that provides tuition assistance for faculty
members’ spouses and dependents. Currently,
the University of
Oklahoma offers a tuition
benefit to full-time employees, translating into a benefit for staff employees
who may seek more education, but not for faculty employees who generally take
positions at OU with a terminal doctoral degree. At present, the current tuition benefit for full-time
OU employees includes a waiver of one-half tuition and several fees not to
exceed six hours per semester or three hours per summer session. Including tuition assistance for a faculty
member’s spouse and dependents could serve as effective recruitment and
retention tools as we have learned from other regional and Big 12 universities
who currently offer this benefit to employees.
Most
faculty members move to Oklahoma
with a trailing spouse or partner. The
availability of a tuition benefit to retrain a trailing spouse for the local
job market could make the recruiting difference. Offering this tuition benefit to dependent
children of faculty members would serve as both recruitment and retention
functions, and would not cost OU much money.
At present, there are 161 faculty dependents listed in PeopleSoft
between the ages of 15 and 18, which would provide a four-year cohort
population estimate given that all dependents within this cohort decided to
attend OU (which is unlikely). A real
tuition benefit for faculty members could generate much goodwill, especially in
years when a cost-of-living pay raise is not in possible.
In
surveying Big 12 universities, seven of these universities offer some form of
tuition assistance as an employment benefit.
Baylor University distinguishes itself as
offering the most competitive tuition benefit to its faculty. Across all public universities surveyed, the University of Nebraska provides the model to emulate: a
tuition package not to exceed 15 credit hours per academic year for faculty and
their dependent spouses and children. Although
each program varies widely, most human resources departments place great value
on the ability for faculty and, in some cases, faculty dependents or spouses to
receive tuition assistance while attending the home institution.
In the
next sections, detailed information is offered by Big 12 universities first and
then the two leading private universities in Oklahoma, University of Tulsa and
Oklahoma City University are included to provide a full picture of OU’s
state-level position vis-à-vis a tuition remission benefit for faculty members
and their dependents.
Universities in the Big
12
* University of Nebraska: Faculty/Spouse/Dependent
tuition assistance offered. Faculty is
offered a maximum of 15 hours per year to be divided among the employee, the
spouse, and/or the dependent, as applicable.
All regular, 1.00 FTE employees, including faculty, are eligible,
regardless of length of service. Tuition
assistance will be applied toward 15 hours of resident tuition in a 12 month
period. This package is administered as
a scholarship as part of the total financial aid package.
*Baylor
University: Offers
faculty tuition remission and a spouse/dependent tuition remission. Faculty and staff are eligible for 100%
tuition remission for themselves up to eight hours per semester after one year
of full time service. Spouse or
dependents of faculty and staff are eligible for 100% tuition discount after
the Baylor employee has completed three years of full-time service (i.e., spouse
tuition discount) or five years of full-time service (i.e., dependent tuition
discount). There are graduated amounts
of tuition remission depending on years worked.
For example, after one year of service, a faculty member’s spouse can
receive 50% tuition remission, after two years of service, 75% tuition
remission. After one year of service, a
faculty member’s dependent can receive 20% tuition remission, etc., up to 100%
after the faculty member has completed five years’ service to Baylor. The tuition remission applies to the spouse
or dependent’s completion of one undergraduate degree or 36 hours
post-baccalaureate. The faculty can
receive tuition remission for both a spouse and dependents concurrently.
*University
of Missouri: Tuition reduction is offered to employees, faculty,
and retirees of UM and to their spouses and dependents. All current faculty and staff are eligible
for a 75% tuition reduction up to six hours per semester after a six-month
probationary employment period. Spouse
and dependents are offered a 50% tuition reduction up to a cumulative 140
undergraduate or graduate hours per spouse or dependent after the faculty or
staff member has given five years of full time, benefit-eligible service to UM.
*Kansas
State University:
Offers tuition reduction to faculty.
Independently, the Office of Financial Aid offers a grant to dependents
and spouses of faculty. To qualify for
the faculty tuition reduction, a faculty or staff member must be a 1.0 FTE
employee for one year. The 100% tuition
reduction applies three hours of undergraduate or graduate hours per semester
for a faculty member. The
spouse/dependent grant covers three hours of undergraduate or graduate credit
per semester, up to eight semesters, and is only available when all other
grants and scholarships have been applied.
The spouse/dependent grant is awarded on a first come, first served
basis until the resource is exhausted.
*Oklahoma State University: Employees and faculty are offered a fee
waiver. Dependents are not eligible for
tuition waivers. The fee waiver amounts
to 50% tuition reduction at Oklahoma
State University
up to five hours per semester. Length of
service is not a factor in determining eligibility.
*University of Colorado: 100% tuition waiver offered
for current, full time faculty. The tuition
waiver maximum is nine credit hours per year, but the courses must be related
to current employment position. Length
of service is not a factor. Dependents
are not eligible for tuition waivers.
*University of Kansas: KU offers no tuition benefit for
faculty, but does offer scholarships for faculty dependents. This is similar to OU’s Heritage Scholarship
although the amount of the scholarship is more generous and is funded through a
contract with Coca-Cola. Incoming freshmen with a benefit-eligible KU faculty
parent can apply for $1,000 awards. Returning students receive $1,000, $750,
$500 or $250, depending on GPA. Eligible
faculty dependents apply through KU Financial Aid office and the scholarship is
administered as part of the total financial aid package.
Other Universities in Oklahoma
Although the University
of Tulsa and Oklahoma
City University are
not Big-12 universities, their tuition benefit is reported here to provide a
full idea of the other major Oklahoma
universities’ contribution to tuition assistance (TU, OSU, OU).
*University
of Tulsa: TU offers a tuition reduction for faculty,
spouse, or dependent undergraduate or graduate degree. The tuition reduction is equal to 50% of the
faculty, spouse, or dependents’ tuition if the faculty member has been employed
by TU for less than a year, and 100% once the faculty member has been employed
by TU over one year. The tuition
reduction is limited to 9 hours per semester.
Other student financial aid awards must be exhausted before the tuition
benefit applies. Undergraduate tuition
is a waiver applied directly to the students’ account. Graduate or law tuition is processed by
Payroll as part of the faculty member’s compensation package and is issued as a
payroll check, subject to taxation, to the employee.
*Oklahoma
City University:
Although not a member of the Big 12, nor a public institution, OCU was surveyed
in order to get a picture of the tuition benefits offered by the closest
university to OU. OCU offers tuition
remission for faculty dependents after the faculty member has given four months
of service. Undergraduate tuition
remission equals 100% of tuition for undergraduate courses and 75% of graduate
tuition, applied toward unlimited hours each semester.
Conclusion
To meet
the need for a tuition benefit that provides tuition assistance for faculty
members’ spouses and dependents, the University of Nebraska model makes the
most sense as a first step to provide a meaningful tuition benefit for faculty
at the University of Oklahoma, (i.e., a tuition package not to exceed 15 credit
hours per academic year for faculty and their dependent spouses and
children).
Additionally,
Appendix 1 of this document provides research on the possibility of a tuition
exchange program as an alternative, innovative longer-term goal that could also
aid in faculty retention. Reciprocity
models currently exist such as the Tuition Exchange Program and the Council of
Independent Colleges Program. Exchange
models are also found in the Academic Common Market, to which the University of Oklahoma belongs, and similar regional
agreements (Midwest Student Exchange, etc.) based on the absence of a specific
major in the student’s home state. If
the University of
Oklahoma were to become a
participant in the Tuition Exchange Program (TEP), founded in the 1950s and
comprised of almost 600 educational institutions, dependents of OU faculty may
one day be able to attend a TEP institution tuition free. A student from another member institution
would come to OU if qualified, and a qualified OU faculty dependent could then
attend that other institution. Using the
PeopleSoft data from page 1 of this report, we know that a maximum estimate for
OU participation would be about 160 dependents.
Local universities currently doing this include Oklahoma
City University and
the University of
Tulsa.
Finally,
this report aims to foster some discussion on a new benefit which would be
meaningful for recruitment and retention, but morale in the short term. In the last ten years at this University,
town meetings are generally held to discuss a reduced benefit for faculty. This report is written in the spirit that we
can reverse this trend for the future well being of this institution and its
heart, the faculty.
In theory, a tuition exchange program is an innovative
idea that could aid in faculty retention.
In practice, it is somewhat complex to implement and maintain, due to
legalities and the differing price of tuition among learning institutions.
Reciprocity models currently exist such as the Tuition Exchange Program (TEP) and
the Council of Independent Colleges Program (CICP). Exchange models are also found in the
Academic Common Market (ACM), to which the University of Oklahoma
belongs, and similar regional agreements (i.e., Midwest Student Exchange, etc.)
based on the absence of a specific major in the student’s home state.
The idea of tuition exchange is nestled within the idea
that a faculty member of the University
of Oklahoma could pay OU tuition for
his or her dependent and then exchange those credits with a faculty member at
another Big 12 institution, such as the University
of Nebraska or the University of Kansas. A faculty member at the University
of Nebraska would then pay in-state
tuition for his or her child to attend the University of Oklahoma. The human resources (HR) departments of the Big
12 universities surveyed were not familiar with this idea of a tuition exchange
program as one university exchanging with peer institutions. Third party organizations, such as the
Academic Common Market or the Midwest Student Exchange, tend to manage
reciprocal arrangements that do exist similar to this. According to the HR departments surveyed, a
proposal would need to be presented to the Regents of each university in order
to gauge interest and feasibility of a reciprocal program.
From the research undertaken, membership of the University of Oklahoma in the Tuition Exchange Program
(TEP) discussed below would be a first step to make a tuition exchange program
a reality as a benefit for OU faculty members.
Tuition Exchange
Program: Founded in the 1950s, the TEP is an organization made up of nearly
600 mostly private educational institutions.
Public universities comprise 8 percent of the member schools. Some of the major public universities which
participate in the TEP include the University
of Florida, the University
of Delaware, and University of Pittsburgh. Regionally accredited public and non-profit
institutions of higher education are eligible for membership. The initiation fee is $350 and annual dues
are $400, with a $35 fee each year for each Tuition Exchange student sponsored
by the university. Oklahoma
City University and
the University of Tulsa are the only two Oklahoma institutions currently participating
in the TEP. Baylor University
is the only Big 12 institution participating in the TEP.
The
Tuition Exchange Program is generally awarded for eight semesters of
undergraduate study at a member institution.
The scholarship is awarded, administered, and funded by the institutions
themselves, not by the TEP. (This is
where the 100% tuition remission offered by Baylor, OCU, and TU can be combined
with the TEP, giving the student 100% tuition at a participating college. For example, a faculty member at TU can have her
child attend Baylor
University tuition-free
if all qualifications are met, because the dependent is eligible for 100%
tuition remission at TU, and this can be used to attend Baylor in exchange for
another student coming to TU from a TEP school). The student must meet admission requirements
at the desired institution. The number of annual scholarships averages 5,300
per year among TEP members. This is a
true trade agreement, with no finances being exchanged and no money being
paid. Institutions must maintain an
equal number of imports and exports.
The home
institution decides how to determine eligibility for this program and how many
students will be awarded. For example,
at Oklahoma City University, dependents of faculty who
have given at least four months of service can apply for the Tuition Exchange
Program on behalf of their dependents.
OCU chooses qualified applicants for the Tuition Exchange Scholarship,
and must accept an equal number of imports from member institutions.
The University of Tulsa offers the Tuition Exchange
Program benefit to dependents of faculty who have completed a year of
service. TU determines how many of these
scholarships to award based on how many imports will be coming to TU. TU considers this program to be extremely
valuable in terms of faculty retention, with faculty considering the TEP as one
of the best benefits available at the institution.
Academic Common Market: The second model for reciprocity is the
Academic Common Market (ACM), which is coordinated by the Southern Regional
Educational Board. The University of Oklahoma
belongs to the ACM. It is an agreement
between Southern states to allow a student to obtain a degree in another state
while paying in-state tuition if that field of study is not available in the
home state. If a student is approved for
the Academic Common Market from another state, the institution that the student
attends issues a waiver for the non-resident portion of tuition. The student is then responsible for in-state
tuition to that institution.
For
example, applicants from Delaware and West Virginia seeking a
bachelor’s in architecture are eligible, once approved, to pay in-state tuition
at OU. Applicants from Arkansas,
Delaware, and Virginia seeking a master’s in Library Information
Studies are eligible, once approved, to pay in-state OU tuition.
Students
from Oklahoma seeking a bachelor’s in
Landscape Architecture may pay in-state tuition at Louisiana State
University, once approved
by the program. Oklahoma
students seeking a master’s in Kinesiology can pay in-state tuition at the University of Kentucky, if approved.
Member states in the ACM include Alabama, Arkansas,
Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North
Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, and West
Virginia. To apply for the Academic
Common Market, a student applies for approval through the ACM coordinator in
his or her home state. Similar
associations, such as the Midwest Student Exchange and the Western
Undergraduate Exchange, exist to serve other parts of the country with the same
goal of providing in-state tuition to a non-resident seeking a major not
available in the home state.
Appendix II: References
Tuition Exchange Program
https://www.tuitionexchange.org
Academic Common Market
http://www.sreb.org/
Winona Tanaka, Vice Provost & Associate Vice President Academic
Affairs
University of Tulsa
918-631-3054
Robert Norris, President
Tuition Exchange Program
www.tuitionexchange.org
202-518-0135
Stephanie Harvey, Assistant Director of Benefits
Kansas State
University
785-532-1870
Connie Ball, Benefits Coordinator,
Iowa State
University
515-294-4800
Greg Clayton, Director of Benefits and Risk Management
University of Nebraska
402-472-8044
Lisa Adams, Benefits Specialist
University of Kansas
785-864-7422
Kelly Lomasney, Assistant Director of Human Resources
University of Texas
512-471-5523
Cliff Carlson, Employee Services
Oklahoma State
University
405-744-5373
Kay Ryter, Benefits
University of Oklahoma
405-325-2961
Michelle Boydstun, Benefits
University of Oklahoma
405-325-2961
Kellie Dyer, Office of Admissions
University of Oklahoma
Appendix III: TEP Participating Institutions
New Member Schools
July 2008 to present
Bay Path College - (MA)
Chester College of New England - (NH)
College of St. Joseph - (VT)
College of Wooster (The) - (OH)
Concordia University - (CA)
DePauw University - (IN)
Franklin University - (OH)
Grove City College - (PA)
Howard Payne University - (TX)
Ohio Wesleyan University - (OH)
Peirce College - (PA)
Queens University of Charlotte - (NC)
University of the Ozarks - (AR)
TE Co-op (Cooperative)
Members admitted to Co-op
Adrian College - (MI)
AIB College of Business - (IA)
Alma College - (MI)
Alverno College - (WI)
Antioch University New England - (NH)
Aquinas College - (MI)
Aurora University - (IL)
Austin College - (TX)
Benedictine College - (KS)
Berea College - (KY)
Berry College - (GA)
Bethany College - (WV)
Bloomfield College - (NJ)
Briar Cliff University - (IA)
Caldwell College - (NJ)
Chester College of New England - (NH)
Clarke College - (IA)
College of Mount Saint Vincent - (NY)
College of New Rochelle - (NY)
Columbia College - (MO)
Columbia College of Nursing - (WI)
Concordia University - (NE)
Concordia University - (OR)
Concordia University - (IL)
Culver-Stockton College - (MO)
Dana College - (NE)
Daniel Webster College - (NH)
Defiance College - (OH)
Doane College - (NE)
Drury University - (MO)
East Texas Baptist University - (TX)
Elmhurst College - (IL)
Emmanuel School of Religion - (TN)
Erskine College - (SC)
Gardner-Webb University - (NC)
Geneva College - (PA)
Georgian Court University - (NJ)
Golden Gate University - (CA)
Green Mountain College - (VT)
Greensboro College - (NC)
Hampden-Sydney College - (VA)
Hastings College - (NE)
Heidelberg College - (OH)
Hendrix College - (AR)
Hilbert College - (NY)
Hillsdale College - (MI)
Hiram College - (OH)
Holy Cross College - (IN)
Houston Baptist University - (TX)
Huntingdon College - (AL)
Illinois College - (IL)
Indiana Institute of Technology - (IN)
John Marshall Law School - (IL)
Judson College - (AL)
Kentucky Wesleyan College - (KY)
Keystone College - (PA)
King's College - (PA)
Landmark College - (VT)
Lees-McRae College - (NC)
Lewis University - (IL)
Lexington Theological Seminary - (KY)
Loras College - (IA)
Lyon College - (AR)
MacMurray College - (IL)
Madonna University - (MI)
Marian College - (IN)
Marlboro College - (VT)
Marymount College of Fordham University - (NY)
McKendree University - (IL)
McMurry University - (TX)
Milligan College - (TN)
Millsaps College - (MS)
Molloy College - (NY)
Monmouth College - (IL)
Mount Marty College - (SD)
Muskingum College - (OH)
Nebraska Wesleyan University - (NE)
North Carolina Wesleyan College - (NC)
North Central College - (IL)
Northern Baptist Theological Seminary - (IL)
Notre Dame College - (OH)
Nyack College - (NY)
Oakland City University - (IN)
Olivet College - (MI)
Ottawa University - (KS)
Park University - (MO)
Peirce College - (PA)
Pfeiffer University - (NC)
Prescott College - (AZ)
Quincy University - (IL)
Regent University - (VA)
Rockhurst University - (MO)
Saint Martin's University - (WA)
Salem Academy & College - (NC)
School for International Training - (VT)
Schreiner University - (TX)
Seton Hill University - (PA)
Sheldon Jackson College - (AK)
Shorter College - (GA)
Southwestern College - (KS)
St. Ambrose University - (IA)
St. Francis College - (NY)
St. Mary's College of Maryland - (MD)
St. Mary's University - (TX)
St. Thomas Aquinas College - (NY)
Stephens College - (MO)
Talladega College - (AL)
Texas Wesleyan University - (TX)
Thiel College - (PA)
Thomas More College - (KY)
Tiffin University - (OH)
Trine University - (IN)
Union College - (KY)
University of Bridgeport - (CT)
University of Dubuque - (IA)
University of Great Falls - (MT)
University of Saint Francis - (IN)
University of St. Francis - (IL)
University of St. Thomas - (TX)
University of the Cumberlands (The) - (KY)
University of the Ozarks - (AR)
Ursuline College - (OH)
Waldorf College - (IA)
Walsh University - (OH)
Waynesburg University - (PA)
Wells College - (NY)
William Jewell College - (MO)
Wilmington College - (OH)
Wingate University - (NC)