Last year, the employee dependent tuition waiver allowed students of university employees attend school at half of tuition price — but they could not accept any additional institutional scholarships.
This year, that changes.
According to Keith Ickes, Executive Director of Planning and Budget at UI, a student may now accept any combination of aid as long as it does not exceed $4,534 — the total annual cost for in-state tuition not including student fees.
This means that if a student receives institutional financial aid that the university itself provides, this student may now receive a waiver and financial aid up to the total cost of tuition in a year.
This year’s waiver is worth $3,262 — 50 percent of tuition and fees.
“There were some complaints of parents last year, when we made them choose,” Ickes said. “In a few cases, parents would take financial aid or scholarship and give up the larger amount, the waiver.”
Ickes said that some scholarships were academic awards or merit awards, and students wanted to be able to keep that prize that they earned.
Trish Hartzell, who was vice chair of the faculty senate when the decision was made, said when initially approved, the waiver did not work very well if the student was receiving a scholarship from the university.
The waiver was originally implemented as an incentive to recruit and maintain valuable faculty and staff for the university.
“We didn’t want students to feel penalized for getting the dependent waiver,” Hartzell said. “We wanted them to work hard to get scholarships and try to achieve good academic goals.”
Hartzell said that they did not want students to assume the administration thought they didn’t work hard for their scholarships.
Students at UI only had to pick between the two for one year. Originally, Hartzell said, the intention was to make sure they were eligible for both.
At the request of President Nellis last spring, Ickes said, a small committee of four was put together who arrived at this particular proposal very quickly.
“Fundamentally everything else is in place,” Ickes said. “This seemed alright, and we said go.”
Ickes said this is not a resolution or a policy change – just a quick procedural matter on administration of the waiver.
Hartzell said that the administration was very happy to change things and made sure the plan was revised quickly so available for this year.
“We can only give 50 percent, but we’re happy with this compromise,” Hartzell said. “We don’t want to break the university either.”
If a dependent lives in Pullman, and their parent works at UI, they can still receive $3,262 toward tuition, but additional out-of-state fees are not eligible to be waived.
“We try to make sure the children of people that are here, stay here,” Hartzell said. “But also keep the university financially afloat.”
Alycia Rock can be reached at [email protected]