I. PURPOSE AND SCOPE

Education is a priority at the University of Houston and an educated workforce is one of the university's most valuable assets. The University of Houston Staff Council researched and proposed a program to provide staff access and support to pursue higher education at the university. With the encouragement of the President of the university, the Offices of the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost, and the Senior Vice President for Administration and Finance secured funding to institute the Staff Tuition Scholarship Program.

The Staff Tuition Scholarship Program is designed to support and encourage employee development through formal education, with a priority on the attainment of baccalaureate degrees and beyond at the University of Houston.

Time off under this Staff Tuition Scholarship Program is part of the College Program release time, which is outlined under MAPP 02.06.01, Section V. Unlike the College Program release time, the Staff Tuition Scholarship Program does not apply to all UH System institutions. Qualifying courses must be enrolled through the University of Houston.

II. DEFINITIONS

Regular, full-time benefits eligible employees: A university employee employed to work 100 percent FTE (40 hours per week) for a period of 4-1/2 months or longer.

Employees “In Good Standing”: Qualifying employees for the program must not be on job probation (6 months for non-exempt employees and 12 months for exempt employees), on performance probation, nor can they owe a debt to the university.

III. PROVISIONS

SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM

Courses taken under this program shall be part of a degree program at the University of Houston. These scholarships will be awarded on a first-come, first-awarded basis.

All costs beyond the scholarship are the responsibility of the employee.

Requests to use the scholarship for courses taken at other universities, including other system components, will not be approved.

IV. EMPLOYEE ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible for the tuition scholarship:

The employee must submit the Application for Staff Tuition Scholarship by the indicated semester deadline. The scholarship is posted on the Human Resources Web Site, and interested staff may also sign up to receive an e-mail message when the new scholarship period opens via the Staff Tuition Scholarship Application Listserv.

Faculty, benefits-eligible teaching assistants, adjunct faculty and all non-benefits staff working less than 100% FTE are not eligible for the scholarship.

Employees in Good Standing: Qualifying employees must not be on job probation (6 months for non-exempt employees and 12 months for exempt employees), on performance probation, nor can they owe a debt to the university.

The employee is required to go through the regular admission processes and meet the relevant university admission requirements, including meeting semester application and credential deadlines. It is the employee’s responsibility to apply for admission to the university and be accepted in sufficient time to attend that semester before the scholarship will be issued.

The minimum enrollment requirement to be eligible for the Staff Tuition Scholarship is three credit hours.

Qualifying employees must not be on academic probation (employee’s cumulative Grade Point Average (GPA) at UH falls below a 2.0) or academic suspension (employee earns less than a 2.0 GPA in a semester after academic probation).

V.GUIDELINES FOR SCHOLARSHIP

The maximum scholarship amount to be offered will not exceed $2,000 per semester. The Staff Tuition Scholarship may be offered for the summer semester depending on available funding. Information will be posted at the Human Resources Web Site before the summer session if funding is available for the summer session.

A Staff Tuition Scholarship Program Committee will be appointed to evaluate the program each year to determine its success and establish the actual dollar amounts allotted for funding. This committee will also approve scholarship amounts for the next fiscal year. The Staff Tuition Scholarship Program Committee will review all applications and select award recipients.

An employee receiving external governmental funding may only submit expenses not covered by the external-funding agent. Any exception to this policy must be approved in advance by the Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost or designee and will be paid outside of the Institutional Tuition Scholarship Funds.

All credits to the employee/student’s account shall be made through the Office of Scholarships and Financial Aid. This scholarship credit will be applied to the employee/student’s account maintained by the Office of Student Business Services. In the event an employee has withdrawn or dropped a course, they will be billed for the portion of the refund that would result from the staff scholarship. Therefore, the monies that result from a withdrawal or drop must be returned to the scholarship fund.

The scholarship credit will be applied to the employee/student’s account in the normal hierarchy of payments as currently exists with the Office of Student Business Services.

The Human Resources Department will confirm each semester the employees applying for the scholarship program are employees in good standing with the university and have met all the requirements at the time of application submittal.