Tuition Exchange, Inc (HR40)

Tuition Exchange, Inc. Program (HR40)

SUBJECT:
Tuition Exchange, Inc program

PURPOSE:
Set equitable guidelines for selection of Tuition Exchange, Inc. participants

POLICY:
Graceland University belongs to the Tuition Exchange, Inc program. This program allows full time, disabled, and retired employees to send their immediate family members to another participating institution tuition free. There are over 500 institutions on this program. This is a reciprocal tuition exchange program so for every student that we bring into Graceland on this program, then we have the opportunity to send one student out. It is important to note that the availability of this program is going to be very restrictive. It is not a guaranteed employment benefit like health insurance. Therefore, the following procedures will be utilized to select participants for this program. PROCEDURE:
Eligibility - All full time employees are eligible for participation in this program. Retirees and former employees that left employment due to long term disability reasons are also eligible participants. Part time employees are not eligible for this program. Part time is defined as working less than 1560 hours in a year. All eligible dependents of the above employees are also eligible (according to following definition).
Definition of dependent - To be considered an eligible dependent, the child must receive 50% or more of his/her support from the eligible employee (as defined above). Spouses are eligible dependents; as are domestic partners. Eligibility shall cease with the receipt of a baccalaureate degree at any institution.

Priority order - Priority order will be established using the following point system:

Employees receive one point for every year of service at Graceland University. Married employees may not add their years of service together. Each individual employee will be given points for their years of service only. Points will be pro-rated for partial years of service. Employees that have previously participated in this tuition exchange program will be deducted one point for every semester of tuition used under this program. This deduction will occur on each employee in the case of married employees.

Example: an employee with 15 years of service with Graceland University would be given positive15 points. This employee had a child that went to Drake University for 4 years under the Tuition Exchange, Inc program five years ago would then get a negative 8 points (one point for every semester used). This employee would end up with 7 points total.

Based on total points, employees will be ranked in descending order. Each year, the Human Resources Director will decide the number of exports that will be allowed on the program based on the number of imports. The Human Resources Director will be responsible for maintaining balance of imports/exports in this program over the previous 5 year period per the Tuition Exchange, Inc regulations.

The deadline to get on the priority list is September 15 of each year. Human Resources will then prioritize the employees based on the points system above and notify the employees within 5 business days of the deadline of their standing. Requests received after the deadline will be put on the bottom of the list with no priority points awarded.

In order for the tuition exchange application to be completed, the student must have received notification of admission into the importing institution. The importing institution's admissions criteria will apply. It is important that the student let Human Resources know as soon as possible, whether the tuition exchange program will be used by the student so that others on the priority list can be notified of their status with the program.
fter acceptance into the program, students are eligible for renewal for a maximum of 3 additional years (total 4 years) provided the employee continues to meet eligibility standards as set forth in the Graceland policy and the student continues to meet the academic standards set forth by the importing institution.

A list of participating institutions can be found on the web at tuitionexchange.org. If an institution is listed on both the Council of Independent Colleges Tuition Exchange Program (CIC) and the Tuition Exchange, Inc Program, the student will only be eligible under the CIC program.