January 25, 2007
Nearly free college education: Tuition Exemption Program gives every employee access to UW classrooms
Benefits available to UW employees cover the spectrum from medical coverage to bus passes, access to great facilities and more. But one of the most valuable benefits is also among the most unsung — that of a virtually free college education.
It’s a show-stopping phrase, to be sure — “free college education” — but for those with patience and determination, that’s exactly what the Tuition Exemption Program provides. Hundreds of staff members take advantage of the program every quarter, working their way, class by class, toward undergraduate or graduate degrees without having to leave or compromise their regular jobs.
Provided to all state employees by the Legislature, the Tuition Exemption Program gives all such employees, part or full time, the option to register for up to six credits each quarter with no tuition charge, though some registration and other fees still apply.
“It’s really been wonderful,” said Jan Kinney, an instructional designer for Educational Outreach’s Distance Learning Department, who since 2001 has worked steadily toward a doctorate in Women Studies, with a concentration on women in spirituality and religion.
Kinney said her pursuit of the degree actually began in 1999, when she started taking classes to prepare herself for the academic rigors of graduate school. After all, she said, it had been many years since she earned her B.A. She said she took five or six credits each quarter, “and pretty much finished up my coursework that way.”
Kinney said she worked late and skipped lunches to account for the class time early on, “but toward the end I had accrued enough vacation time, I took the classes as vacation days.” She also said her colleagues and supervisors have been “absolutely cooperative” in allowing her the scheduling flexibility to get her degree finished.
Elizabeth Warrick, director of Professional Organizational Development (recently renamed from Training and Development) makes an excellent spokesperson for the program because of her job and the fact that she’s using the tuition exemption benefit herself. Warrick is about halfway through her doctorate in the College of Education’s Educational Leadership and Policy Studies Department, and expects to finish sometime in winter or spring of 2007.
Working toward any degree is a worthy goal, but Warrick said the classes also have opened up her view of the UW as a whole. “One of the best things for me is that it helped me to engage in the University in a whole different way, as a student — especially working off campus and in a relatively non-student-oriented area. It helps me get reconnected with the teaching mission of the University,” Warrick said.
The tuition exemption benefit has been used for decades by staff to take classes toward degrees or just for interest’s sake. In 2005, 691 staff members on the Seattle campus, 22 in Bothell and 38 staffers at UW Tacoma applied for and received tuition waivers for a total of 751. Though numbers of tuition-exempt students have increased in recent years — there were 448 in all three campuses combined in 1997, for instance, and all of 849 in 2002 — the total usage is still comparatively small considering the UW’s large employee population.
For years, a wide spectrum of evening class sections also was available through the tuition exemption program, but the advent of the Evening Degree Program restricted most of those classes to paying students only. The program also does not provide for:
- Extension or Distance Learning courses.
- Remedial courses such as English 100, 101, 102 or Math 098.
- Independent study or internship courses, numbered 600, 700 or 800.
- Any self-sustaining courses, such as courses offered by Educational Outreach.
The benefit is not offered by the UW alone. All state institutions of higher education offer classes through the program, including the state’s system of community and technical colleges.
UW staff members earning credits through tuition exemption say the process can be challenging, but the rewards great for those who advocate for themselves and remain flexible. In fact, it’s almost like being an underclassman again, since tuition exemption students have the lowest priority in class registration, and actually register on the third day of each quarter.
“One thing to say about tuition exemption is that you have to have the permission of the instructor, and (registration) is contingent on whether there is room,” said Kinney, the Women Studies student. “But my experience in that has been absolutely positive in every sense.”
Kinney said when class schedules are published, she looks through them and decides what to take. Then she writes to the professor, explaining her situation and why she needs the class. “I have always gotten good responses,” she said.
Warrick, who heads the training office, knows that not all job situations at the UW can provide employees the needed flexibility to fully use the tuition exemption benefit. Navigating the paperwork needed to access the program slows down some, too — especially if the employees are not comfortable in advocating for themselves.
“Using the tuition exemption benefit is a little daunting, and we are going to try and address that,” Warrick said. Often, would-be students think they could not be accepted, or that they need to be admitted to special programs or such. “That might be one of the things that puts people off.”
To increase understanding of the program, Warrick said she is thinking about arranging information sessions at least quarterly to help increase understanding of the benefit, “just so people can come to a safe environment to say they don’t understand this or that, or to get an overview.”
She said, “There is a myth among some staff that ‘I will never be able to take advantage of this benefit.'” As for the possibility that some supervisors just aren’t open to allowing their employees to pursue classes through tuition exemption, Warrick said, “I hope that’s a myth, too.”
Classes offered through the Tuition Exemption Program need not always be degree-driven, too, Warrick said — “you can just take a class you might be interested in.” In fact, she added, “I fully intend after I get my degree to continue taking classes, maybe one or two a year.”
As both longtime UW employees and students using tuition exemption, Warrick and Kinney know the process of working toward a degree takes time and patience, but the rewards are great.
Warrick added, “And when I look at my tuition statement and see how much has been waived, I am able to say, OK, I got compensated a little bit more.”
