71-11 Tuition Assistance

Procedure Description

I. Eligibility and Criteria

A. All FTE permanent employees, their spouse, or legal dependents are eligible to participate in the tuition waiver program. Adjunct faculty and temporary staff employees are not eligible to participate.

B. Eligible college employees, spouse, or legal dependents taking credit courses must apply for admission to the college, meet all required admission standards (including required testing and course prerequisites).

C. Faculty: To be eligible to apply for tuition assistance, faculty must be employed in a slotted FTE position, have successfully completed six months of employment, and have been admitted to FDTC, through the appropriate admissions process.

D. Staff: To be eligible to apply for tuition assistance, staff must be employed for a least 37.5 hours per week in a permanent "slotted" position, have satisfactorily completed six months of employment, and have been admitted to FDTC, through the appropriate admissions process.

E. All FDTC FTE employees must take courses outside of normal duty hours. Normal duty hours are those work hours for which an employee is usually scheduled to be at their assigned work place. Adjustments of the work schedule will not be made to accommodate taking of a course under the provision of this procedure. Employees may take courses during their normally scheduled lunch hour; however, the lunch hour will not be extended to accommodate course schedules.

F. Program Provisions:

1. Eligible faculty, staff, spouse, or legal dependent may apply to take up to 10 hours for academic credit at Florence-Darlington Technical College per semester at no charge, on a space available basis. Employees taking additional courses will pay regular tuition at the time of enrollment.

2. Employees must pay all application fees, as well as all expenses incurred for textbooks, laboratory fees, etc.

3. Employees who drop a course prior to the end of the semester must pay for the next course for which he/she enrolls unless there were extenuating circumstances for dropping the course; i.e., death in family, serious illness of employee, etc.

4. Employees who terminate employment prior to the end of the semester must pay for the entire cost of the course or drop the course prior to the final paycheck being released.

5. Employees must pass the course with a least a C for which Tuition Assistance is supplied or the employee must pay for the next course for which he/she enrolls.

G. Class Scheduling:

1. Whenever possible, FTE (Staff or Faculty) should enroll in class during hours, which do not conflict with normal working hours.

2. When an approved class cannot be scheduled during non-work hours and it is not feasible to adjust work schedules, participants who earn annual leave may be allowed to take leave for the purpose of attending class. The employee must either take annual leave, make up the time, or take leave without pay if the course is taken during normal work hours. Both annual leave and authorized leave without pay must be approved in advance by the employee's supervisor.

III. Registration:

A. Registration for employees who wish to take credit courses under the tuition waiver program will begin before the beginning of classes, will be published in advance on official college calendars, and end the last day of the add/drop period.

B. Registration for non-credit courses will be on the normal work day prior to the start of the course. Registration will be coordinated through the Corporate Workforce Division (CWD).

C. The employee (spouse or legal dependent) electing to take a tuition assistance course must complete the application form at least two weeks prior to the registration. Application forms are available from Human Resources or on line at https://login.neoed.com for routing approval.

D. Human Resources Office will maintain records of employees taking courses. Final approval of the Tuition Assistance Application does not register or enroll a participant in the requested course nor does it guarantee admission as a student to FDTC. Eligible participants (Faculty, Staff, Spouse, or legal dependent) are responsible for applying for admission to FDTC and for receiving academic advisement.

E. Employee: At the end of each semester, the employee will submit documentation to Human Resources certifying that he/she completed the course with a passing grade. If he/she did not complete and pass the course, he/she will be required to pay for the next course taken (unless there were extenuating circumstances; i.e., death in the family, serious illness of employee, etc.). Documentation must also be submitted showing the next course has been paid for before consideration for an additional course under this policy will be considered.