SCOPE: FACULTY AND STAFF
Issued: 4/1/00
Revised: 5/30/03; 1/01/07, 12/6/18
1. Purpose
The Employee Education and Training Plan ("the Plan") provides employees of Â鶹ÊÓƵ with assistance in obtaining additional college-level education and training to increase their value to the University. The Plan is intended to operate such that payments made under it qualify, in the case of undergraduate classes required in a degree plan, as qualified tuition reduction under Section 117 of the Internal Revenue Code; or, for all other courses, as business expenses for courses related to the employee’s present position, under Section 162 and thus excluded from taxable income under Section 132(d). As such, the Plan represents an internal administrative procedure for the Lamar components. It is not intended to operate as a fringe benefit plan under Section 127 of the Internal Revenue Code.
2. Definitions:
2.1 Eligibility: Any full-time employee who has satisfactorily completed a minimum of six months, excluding those employees who are required as a condition of employment to be enrolled as students.
2.2 Course: Any course offered by Â鶹ÊÓƵ for which academic or technical credit is awarded upon successful completion of the course. The term ―course shall include any associated laboratory or other practical instruction only if such instruction is an integral part of the course, and is not separately numbered. The term course shall include ―Developmental and ―Pre-Collegiate courses and laboratories that are offered on a regular basis by a Lamar component and published in its official undergraduate academic catalog.
2.3 First Class Day: For a class offered under any regularly published semester or term schedule, the official ―first class day established for that semester or term regardless of the actual date of the first meeting of the specific class. For any class for which an official ―first class day is not established or cannot be determined under the preceding definition, the date of the first scheduled meeting of the class.
2.4 Standard Workload: The standard workload for an employee (100% FTE) shall be the workload defined in State law or regulation as the standard workload. If no such definition is available, the percent FTE reported for that employee to the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board in accordance with Â鶹ÊÓƵ rules and procedures shall be used for purposes of the Plan.
3. Eligibility:
3.1 Eligible employees are eligible to apply for a tuition and fee waiver under the plan for any course, where the first class day falls on or after the day the employee has been an eligible employee for a continuous period of six (6) calendar months.
3.2 An employee whose application contains significantly incorrect information, who violates the provisions or procedures of the Plan, or who fails to complete his or her obligations under the Plan, may be declared ineligible for any subsequent participation in the Plan.
4. Detailed waiver information:
4.1 Waivers will be made, subject to the other provisions of the Plan, for any course that will maintain or improve the skills required for the employee’s current job. The institution has determined that, since the primary business of the University is to provide courses leading to a degree, any undergraduate degree will improve the skills required of any employee. Waivers will thus be made for any undergraduate course that is required on any degree plan that the employee may be pursuing.
Waivers for graduate classes or other undergraduate classes will be made only if the employee’s supervisor certifies that the specific course is directly relevant to the employee’s current position.
4.2 Waivers will be made, subject to the other provisions of the plan, for no more than two courses in each of the Fall and Spring semesters, and one course during the Summer term. Students choosing to enroll in less than the two allowed courses, courses are non-transferrable to future semesters.
4.3 Waivers are applicable only for the courses for which approval was granted. A new application must be fully approved as specified in Section V before a different course may be substituted under drop and add procedures for the originally approved course.
4.4 To be eligible to receive the waiver, students must be in good academic standing and must comply with the satisfactory academic progress policy. Undergraduate students must maintain a cumulative 2.0 GPA; Graduate students must maintain a 3.0 GPA. Failure to comply will result in a student's ineligibility for the waiver until their cumulative GPA has improved.
4.5 If an employee has previously been the beneficiary of a waiver under this plan for a course, a waiver will not be made a second time for the same or an equivalent course, except when the course was officially dropped (or the student officially withdrew) owing to documented medical