Tuition waiver lets staff advance selves, careers
By Mark Miester

Tyrone Cochran, general maintenance worker with the physical plant, began working at Tulane in 1995 for one reason and one reason alone. Last month, on the floor of the Louisiana Superdome, he realized that goal. “It was a very difficult road,” laughs Cochran, a New Orleans native who had been out of school for more than 15 years when he began working on his bachelor’s degree in computer information systems. “I wouldn’t have been able to afford it without the tuition waiver. No way.” In May, 12 university employees departed the Superdome bearing Tulane University degrees, thanks in part to a benefit that can amount to as much as a $100,000 perquisite per employee. Tulane enrolled more than 400 employees and their dependents in classes through the tuition waiver program this year, with most working toward a degree. The university allocates $4.5 million per year for the program and, according to senior vice president for planning and administration Yvette Jones, that money gets used. “It’s a line-item budget in the university,” Jones says. “If you take a class in the business school, the business school gets a revenue for you and your department pays for your tuition, so it is a significant benefit.” A benefit that Jones knows well. After taking a job as executive secretary to former Tulane president Sheldon Hackney, Jones used the tuition waiver program to earn a bachelor’s degree in English from Tulane in 1992. Jones later earned an EMBA from the Freeman School. This year, Jones became a Tulane mom when her daughter graduated from University College with a media arts degree, also made possible through the tuition waiver. “I came here to finish my education,” Jones says. “Little did I know I’d finish my child’s along the way.” According to Jones, Tulane’s tuition waiver is much in line with other private AAU institutions, most of which offer full or partial tuition waivers for employees and dependents. The program has been in place at Tulane for as long as anyone can remember, with the only significant change coming in 1993, when the graduate and professional school waiver for dependents was eliminated. Other than that, the program has remained untouched. “It’s a great opportunity for employees to take advantage of,” she says. “It’s a wonderful benefit. That’s the bottom line.” The prospect of finishing--or starting--a degree is for many employees what attracts them to Tulane in the first place. “That was definitely a big pull and one of the reasons I wanted to work for Tulane when I moved back to New Orleans,” says endocrinology administrative secretary Robin Alexander, who earned a bachelor’s degree in social sciences last month through the program. “I never could have afforded to go back to school without the tuition waiver.” For others the tuition waiver is not the primary draw of a job at Tulane but a perk of employment that makes continuing education more convenient and more affordable. “I wanted to expand my administrative skills,” says Eula Mae Bazile, manager for executive programs in health systems management, who received her MBA last month on a tuition waiver. “I would have done it either way, but certainly it was a great help to have that benefit.” “When I found out it was a benefit, I said, ‘I’ll take advantage of this,’” says Carmen Glaeser, a real estate assistant who earned an associate degree in business from University College. “I went straight from high school to working, so I always wanted to go to college.” Bazile, Cochran and Glaeser hope their new degrees will better position them to advance their careers at Tulane, although, unlike some corporate tuition reimbursement programs, there is no requirement for employees to remain with the university after earning a degree. While some employees jump to the more lucrative private sector each year after earning their degrees, for others remaining with Tulane is their priority. “I’m hoping to parlay into perhaps a coordinator’s position here at Tulane or perhaps move into public relations,” notes Alexander. “I would eventually like to go to grad school and study cultural anthropology, but that’s down the road. I would like to have a social life for a couple of years.”

Inside Tulane
June, 2000