Update on the Status of the Educational Fee Waiver
Implementation of an educational fee waiver has been a longstanding goal of the University of California Faculty Welfare (UCFW) committee. Many other private and public universities offer such a fee waiver for the dependents of their faculty members and staff. A fee waiver program would improve overall employee morale as well as serve as a particularly effective recruitment and retention tool.
Under the leadership of Chair Renee Binder (2001-02), a proposal to implement a fee waiver was approved by the UCFW committee and announced on the campuses. However, the subsequent budget crisis in the State of California rendered the original proposal no longer viable. Although the estimated amount needed to fund a full educational fee waiver is relatively modest ($4.7 million for the UC campuses), the money would have been taken out of the COLA/range adjustment. At a time when the UC system is unable to negotiate a budget that will cover the desired COLA and full amount of the increase in health care costs to faculty and staff, the addition of a new -- albeit inexpensive -- benefit accruing to a relatively small number of employees would send the wrong message to the State legislators.
Thus, the UCFW committee is exploring alternatives, such as the introduction of a limited pilot program and specification of a “trigger” for the implementation of a full, permanent fee waiver, e.g. when salaries increase by a given amount. Another possibility is to organize a system whereby each campus “forgives” tuition up to the same amount its employees receive from other campuses. Based on a preliminary study of the issue, the amount of the imbalance for each campus would be very small and might be funded by UCOP through some miscellaneous systemwide fund. Although local campuses would lose the small amount of revenue associated with the foregone tuition fees, the system works well in the Cal State system and would not present the same political hurdles as the original proposal.
While it is not hopeful that funding for the program could be found for the next few years with the current state of the University’s budget, the UCFW committee remains committed to implementing an educational fee waiver as soon as budget opportunities allow.