Proposed Changes to the Staff Educational Benefit Imminent
President Gamble has indicated an intent to institute significant changes to the Educational Benefit as of January 1, 2012; see the proposed new policies here. UAF Staff Council has sent President Gamble a resolution in opposition; Staff Alliance has a similar resolution in the works (see a draft of it here).
The changes proposed in the draft policies will restrict new employee use, impose repayment terms for Staff who receive an F or NB grade, and impose some elements of Satisfactory Academic Progress on staff and dependents.
Staff Council Concerns
UAF and Staff Alliance are concerned about the erosion of this benefit, which they feel is key to employee morale and retention, especially in the face of increasing costs for healthcare. In particular, the concern is that this is the first step to additional, future restrictions on the educational benefit.
Examples of future restrictions that could be imposed, but are not in the current plan, include imposing full Satisfactory Academic Progress requirements on staff or dependents. This would affect access to
- classes taken for personal enrichment,
- 500 level courses,
- non-credit teacher professional development classes,
- 12-month classes offered through the Center for Distance Education/UAF, and
- use of the benefit by folks who already have a degree.
History of the Issue
The State of Alaska Legislature provides significant base funding for the UA System, and there are some legislators who either have concerns about the staff educational benefit or are opposed to it entirely.
Legislators have named a number of issues as the root of their concerns, including the possibility that staff (and our dependents) are using the tuition benefit irresponsibly by failing classes, and / or that staff (and our dependents) are taking seats that paying students aren’t able to get into (possibly as a result of repeatedly failing and retaking classes).
In response to a request for information from these legislators, UA provided a report about the benefit. The report shows that in FY2010, 1,530 staff used the educational benefit and 1,397 dependents used the benefit; this represents about 6% of the UA student body. Staff failed classes at a rate of 2%, compared to dependents at 6% and all students at 5%.
UAS Response
UAS Staff Council has the option of sending a resolution to President Gamble, to make sure he knows what staff in our region think. We have four options:
- Take no action: no resolution.
- Draft a resolution in support of the UAF resolution and/or the Staff Alliance resolution.
- Draft a resolution stating our position on the proposed changes: opposition to any changes.
- Draft a resolution stating our position on the proposed changes: our position (opposition/support) on specific aspects of the proposed changes.
What You Can Do
If this benefit is important to you, make your voice heard: send an email to Mary Miller by Wednesday, December 7 close of business with the resolution option you want, as well as any message you would like to send to President Gamble about the educational benefit.
Decisions are made by the people who participate – are you going to be one of them?
Last Update: 12/5/11