FAQs (as of March 2009)

Will tuition waivers be eliminated for all assistantship appointments lower than 33%?

If this recommendation were to be adopted, waivers would not be eliminated for students now holding 25% to 32% assistantship appointments. The goal would be to migrate students with these assistantships to 33% as quickly as possible, and to make new appointments in these positions at 33%. During the transition period, no student would lose a waiver because she or he held a 25% appointment.

Will students currently holding appointments lose their waivers?

No.

Will changes in the tuition waiver policy change my benefits?

No.

What is meant by “tuition-supported” program?

“Tuition-supported” programs, by definition, rely on tuition payments for their financial support. For example, Professional Science Master’s programs now being developed would be “tuition-supported.”

Will tuition waivers be eliminated in programs deemed “tuition-supported”?

If this recommendation is adopted, assistantships in “tuition-supported” programs would not generate waivers. “Tuition-supported” programs, by definition, rely on tuition payments for their financial support. These programs would, however, be able to provide tuition scholarships to recruit and support some students. And students in these programs would be eligible to hold assistantships.

How will “tuition-supported” programs be identified?

Some programs already identified as “self-supporting” or “cost-recovery” would become “tuition-supported” programs. Professional Science Master’s programs now being developed would be “tuition-supported.” Probably some non-research master’s program with a high training component will be developed in the future that would be “tuition-supported.” For new programs, requests to be designated as a “tuition-supported” graduate program would be part of the regular review process that all new programs must go through to be recognized.

Will students funded by external fellowships still qualify for courtesy waivers?

Departments may request courtesy fellowship waivers for individual students who receive a fellowship from outside the University only in cases where the stipend is paid directly to the student and the award has no funding for tuition and fees. Courtesy waivers are awarded by the Graduate College at the request of a student’s enrolling unit with approval of the disciplinary college.

Will tuition waivers for Academic Professionals and other University Employees be affected?

There was some discussion about possible changes in the employee waiver policies early on in the working group, but those changes are not now part of the recommendations being explored in conversations across campus. Because employee waivers are governed by different policies from those governing assistantship and fellowship waivers, they have been broken off from the ongoing discussion about assistantship and fellowship waivers. The recommendations presented here would have no effect on employee waivers.

Who has been involved in this decision?

No decision has been made to implement any of the recommendations, and none will be made until ongoing discussions with groups across campus are completed. Members of the working group identified on this web site helped produce the draft recommendations, and there have been extensive discussions about these draft recommendations with the Council of Deans, the Graduate College Executive Committee, and groups of faculty, administrators, and graduate students from many areas of the campus. These discussions are ongoing.

What is the timeline for implementing any changes to the current tuition waiver policy?

There has not yet been a decision to implement any of the recommendations, and none will be made until the ongoing discussions with various groups are completed. Most of the recommendations would require a phase-in process of two to three years.

What is the approval process required to make changes to the campus waiver policy?

Some recommendations, were they to be implemented, would require full review and ultimately approval of the Board of Trustees. Others simply require administrative action in the Graduate College and Office of the Provost.

Is there going to be a change in tuition waivers for PhD candidates receiving departmental fellowships?

The issue of endowed fellowships has come up in a number of meetings to discuss these recommendations. Should an endowment be treated as an external funding agency, and assessed all or part of the tuition for each fellowship funded by it? For existing endowed fellowships, such assessments are probably not possible, since there are funding agreements with donors in place for these endowments. Whether future fellowship endowments should be assessed all or part of a fellow’s tuition is a very important question that will be fully explored by the working group.

Why are these decisions being made without the input of graduate students or, at least, their union?

A meeting held with representatives of the GEO and graduate student participation in a couple other meetings did, in fact, produce useful vantage points on the ongoing process and the provisional recommendations of the working group.

If there is a cap on the number of tuition waivers and restrictions on a department's ability to hire new professors, will there be enough faculty/teaching assistants to teach all classes?

Should caps by placed by any the various colleges on the number of tuition-waiver generating appointments, great care will be taken to be certain we do not erode instructional capability. Teaching assistantships are an important component of the University’s capacity to provide excellent undergraduate teaching, and we will not introduce practices that compromise it.

Would migrating all 25% appointments to 33% undercut the goal of saving money and possibly cost departments more money?

The working group believes that a 33% appointment, particularly in a research graduate program, is an appropriate base rate to set. Much of the concern about this provision has come from administrators, faculty, and students in master’s level programs that do not lead to the Ph.D., that have a largely fixed curriculum, that provide professional preparation, and that can be completed in 1½ to 2 years. The performance master’s degrees in FAA are a significant instance of this concern, which has been noted by the working group, and will be fully discussed before any recommendations are finalized.

If a student has two 25% assistantships for a full 50% appointment, would that student lose his/her tuition waiver altogether?

No. If this recommendation were adopted, as with the current policy, the combination of assistantships would generate a waiver.