by Martha I. Fernandez
Staff Writer
He carefully puts on a white linen suit to go fix the main sewer line in the Health Office that has erupted. It is 8 a.m. Dorian Logue began his Tuesday at 5 a.m., playing with his newborn for about an hour before he tackled traffic for a 70 mile drive to work at the University of La Verne’s Maintenance Department.
Logue, however, obtains another occupation besides being a father, spouse, and plumber assistant/boiler technician. He is a Business Administration major in his final year receiving a tuition-free ULV education.
A tuition discount or a completely waived education is offered to ULV employees and their immediate family through tuition remission.
“One of the things that we as a university are in a position to offer as a non-cash compensation is the opportunity for employees, spouses and dependent children to get a college education at no cost,” said Oris Barber, director of Human Resources.
Working as well as studying is by no means an easy task. “I wish I would have finished school as a traditional student and not have to come and get it now. The tuition and job experience helps, but it takes too much time,” said Logue.
Several guidelines do apply to be eligible to receive the privilege. An employee must be working in a regular position on a 100 percent basis and have no account pending with the University. Temporary employees are not applicable. An employee can take a maximum of 24 units a year, however the courses and their workload may not conflict with the employees’ job duties.
“We may not pay what they might earn in cash, anyway, what they might somewhere else but then we got this nice trade-off for some people that are willing to work for a little less in order to get this benefit,” said Barber.
Barber said an employee is automatically eligible for full tuition remission for the following semester from when they were hired. Employees’ spouses and children are qualified for partial and full remission according to the length of time the employee has been at the University. Spouses must reside with the employee and children are eligible through age 24. Lab fees and any other fees that exceed standard tuition costs are not covered by the program.
Fran Rodriguez, director of Student Accounts said that about 150 employees and their spouses and children are taking advantage of this opportunity.
Human Resources’ “Rules Affecting Classified and Administrative/Professional Staff” section 16 states that the spouse and dependent children are eligible for a one-third reduction from the employee’s date of employment. Two-thirds reduction is applicable after the employee’s first year of employment. A full tuition waiver is offered after the second year working at the University. This policy has recently been put into effect. Before spouses were able to obtain full tuition remission immediately.
Mary Trejo, Student Accounts representative, and her daughter Melissa have been able to notice the great difference partial tuition remission makes in financing a college education. Trejo began working at ULV in Fall 1993, therefore she is only able to receive a two-thirds discount.
“The tuition remission helps a lot to cover tuition. It helps tremendously, extra money is going for her (Melissa) to study abroad,” said Trejo.
If financial aid is awarded to the eligible applicant, the University covers the tuition costs not covered by financial aid. Aside from this commodity, the University Book Shoppe, which is a separate organization from the university, also awards a 10 percent discount to ULV employees.
