Context

The Working Group on Graduate Tuition Waiver Policies and Practices was convened in November 2007 to consider possible changes in graduate tuition waiver policies and practices.  After an extensive review of our waiver practices and those of peer institutions, the Working Group made six recommendations, which were presented to the Graduate College Executive Committee on November 20, 2008:

  1. Increase the minimum waiver-eligible appointment.
    1. Increase the minimum waiver-eligible assistantship appointment from 25% to the value of a minimum assistantship stipend for a 33% appointment
    2. Increase the minimum waiver-generating fellowship appointment from $3,000 per semester to equal the value of a minimum 33% assistantship stipend
    3. For waiver considerations, combine assistantship and fellowship support, so that a combination of an assistantship and fellowship that equaled or exceeded the minimum 33% assistant stipend would generate a waiver
  2. Encourage deans, in consultation with department heads and the Dean of the Graduate College, to limit the number of tuition-generating appointments allowable for each graduate program.
  3. Amend the fellowship tuition-waiver policy to make is easier to assess tuition costs or cost-of-education charges in lieu of tuition to external fellowship funding agencies.
  4. Amend tuition-remission practices in place for federal grants and contracts to assess tuition-remission charges on assistantships funded by current use private gifts, private grants, or private contracts.
  5. Create a category of “tuition-supported” graduate programs that would be exempted from campus tuition-waiver policies.
  6. Re-evaluate the amount of tuition waived for University of Illinois employees enrolled in graduate programs.

Since that time, Vice Provost Richard Wheeler, often accompanied by other Working Group members (either he or Professor Kelly Tappenden was at every meeting), met with many groups to discuss these recommendations, including most colleges that appoint assistants, units that hire assistants (Library, Office of Student Affairs), the leadership of the graduate student-employee organization, the Council of Deans, the Provost’s Cabinet, and, again, the Graduate College Executive Committee.

Early in these conversations, it was decided that the sixth recommendation was not of a piece with the others, and it was dropped from consideration.

The first five recommendations were discussed at all the meetings.

On February 3, 2009, a website with an FAQ section was posted on the Provost’s webpage that reported the status of the recommendations after discussions that had taken place up to then, and a few days later it was revised to include responses to those who wrote in with comments or questions.

The meetings with concerned parties raised many questions and greatly enriched the conversation about graduate tuition waivers.  What follows is a brief presentation of the key issues that emerged in these conversations about each of these recommendations, followed in each case by a newly stated recommendation.