Changes to tuition benefits for faculty and staff more than two years in the making were approved by UNM President David Schmidly, effective at the beginning of the month. Separate policies on tuition remission and dependent were combined to form the updated policy 3700, “Education Benefits.” UNM’s Staff Council initiated the changes in fall 2006 with a resolution proposing to clarify and simplify the policy.
The resolution included a revised draft of the policy that would reduce exceptions to tuition remission, extending use for personal and educational purposes as well as professional development.
Specific changes in the approved policy include:
• The Dependent Education Scholarship is now available to regular part-time employees after one year of employment in a regular position.
• The spouse/domestic partner benefit is now in addition to the employee benefit and is for up to four credit hours per semester, no longer limited to one course.
• The personal enrichment allowance of up to two credit hours per semester is now in addition to the employee’s allowance for academic or professional development courses – eight credit hours per semester in the fall or spring and four credit hours in the summer.
• The policy outlines IRS requirements considering certain education benefits as taxable income, including graduate courses taken by a spouse, all courses taken by a domestic partner and personal enrichment courses taken by the employee.
Schmidly also approved changes to policy 3790, “Domestic Partners” to explicitly include legally recognized same-sex marriage.