Changing tuition benefits
The cost of attending CEU may soon change for employees and their families.
The CEU policy about tuition benefits for employees is being studied and possibly revised to help meet mandated budget cuts. The discussion about tuition benefits began Nov. 5 during a college senate meeting, and reviewed again with suggestions from CEU employees at a college senate meeting Dec. 3.
The college senate is asking questions and gathering comments from campus employees while reviewing several different options including adopting Utah State University’s policy.
This archived article was written by: Erin Page
The cost of attending CEU may soon change for employees and their families.
The CEU policy about tuition benefits for employees is being studied and possibly revised to help meet mandated budget cuts. The discussion about tuition benefits began Nov. 5 during a college senate meeting, and reviewed again with suggestions from CEU employees at a college senate meeting Dec. 3.
The college senate is asking questions and gathering comments from campus employees while reviewing several different options including adopting Utah State University’s policy.
CEU’s current policy waives 100 percent of tuition for full-time employees, their spouses and dependent children; this amount has averaged between $50,000-$70,000 per year.
Next July when CEU becomes USU-CEU, employees and their families will be eligible for an additional 50 percent tuition reduction on upper division and graduate courses.
Susan Neel, Ph.D, chair of college senate says, “because USU tuition rates are nearly three times as expensive as CEU rates, this added benefit will amount to a lot of money, which poses a challenge at a time when the state legislature is requiring colleges to cut their budgets.”
Neel is encouraging CEU employees to keep in mind “the interest of the institution as it is merged with USU” and as the college deals with budget worries. She states several interests to keep in mind when revising this policy: a future ability to budget for the tuition benefits in response to new circumstances, making it possible for CEU to recruit and keep faculty, encouraging life-long learning among college employees, and creating a policy that CEU is an institution with sound practices.
“It is hard to know what is best for the college, but we are getting a lot of helpful input from people,” Neel said. “The results of our deliberations in college senate will be forwarded as a recommendation to the president.”
