Course waiver reduced for UNC employees

The state has reduced a UNC-system benefit that lets employees take classes for free as a result of a drastic budget shortfall.

Employees previously had the opportunity to take three classes a year at any UNC-system school free of charge, but the new cut reduced the benefit to eight credit hours a year.

According to the budget, the benefit reduction will save North Carolina $700,000 a year.

Many UNC-Chapel Hill employees, including leaders of the legislative action committee, tried to defend the benefit from being cut. Now they are rallying support to regain the lost class.

“We’re hoping we can stage an organized effort with the general administration and the chancellor and take it directly to the legislature,” said Jonathan Stephenson, the committee’s chairman and an Allied Health Services employee.

The tuition waiver for employees is only provided if there is space available in a class. An interested staff member must be a permanent, full-time employee and turn in an application to the Cashier’s Office.

“We get a lot of applications,” said Brian Usischon, senior director of benefits and employee services. “Cashiers called people enrolled to let them know of the cuts when the forms were submitted this academic year.”

Last semester, there were about 440 employees enrolled in classes, but not all of them necessarily used the tuition waiver.

Many employees, such as Carrie Goldsmith, graduate studies coordinator in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy, use the benefit to work toward a degree.

Goldsmith has taken three classes a year for the last three years, working toward a bachelor’s degree in communication studies.

And with 20 courses to go, she doesn’t think two classes a year will cut it. Goldsmith plans to continue to take three classes a year and pay for the third.

Staff members discussed the issue at Wednesday’s Employee Forum meeting, but Goldsmith said she does not expect to see changes to the budget in the near future.

She said she called legislators, the governor and UNC-system President Erskine Bowles for answers.

“I asked how they’re saving money,” she said in the meeting. “But nobody can actually break down and explain to me how they’re actually saving money. There isn’t a dollar amount.”

Alan Moran, a maintenance technician in Facilities Services who serves on the forum’s compensation and wages committee, said he thinks the cut outweighs the value of the employee benefit.

“It will effect morale and retention of employees and affect the ability of the University to attract new employees,” he said.

 
Contact the University Editor at udesk@unc.edu.