SALT LAKE CITY — A major perk for working at the University of Utah is cheaper tuition for you and your family, but new policy changes will affect some of those benefits.
One of the reasons Yvonne Bass took her job at the school was for her husband to get a break on grad school. She helps students learn from the medical simulations she creates.
"I was fully confident that I was able to pay not just for half-tuition, but just half-cost," said Bass.
But before Yvonne's husband started this fall, the university cut back the benefit.
"We still get half-tuition, so we still get half of that $4-5,000, but the differential and the program fees are up to twice as much as the tuition can be," she explained.
Utah’s human resources say there are four categories of tuition reimbursement for undergrads, graduates, differential and regular tuition. Of those four, only one is being affected, which is the group including Bass’s husband.
"We’re still providing a 50% benefit for undergrads in everything, and a 50% for regular graduate tuition," said Utah's Chief Human Resource Officer Jeff Herring. "The only one that’s changing is the graduate differential tuition, and that’s not even in all colleges and degrees."
School officials claim the change started with a policy change at the Utah System of Higher Education.
"We reacted to a USHE policy, but certainly took the opportunity as an institution to make sure we were aligning our benefit with our peer institutions," Herringe added.
Current students are grandfathered in, but Bass’ husband starts in the fall, and she wants the university to reconsider the new policies.
"They were made by people and we are people. This policy is affecting people, so these people can help the other people," she said. "We’re just people who need help. These words on a page are preventing that."
