January 7, 1999

As most of you know, the University was advised in late August that our former practice of providing tuition assistance benefits to temporary grant employees was not authorized under Section 59-111-15 of the South Carolina Code of Laws. The University is attempting to correct this problem through legislative action; however, until such action is taken, we must use an alternative method of providing this benefit to otherwise eligible temporary grant employees.

Under guidelines approved by the South Carolina Budget and Control Board, it is possible for temporary grant employees to receive tuition assistance if the assistance is in the form of reimbursement for a specific course. The course must be taken for academic credit and the employee must receive a grade of "C" or better in order to be reimbursed. Under University guidelines, to be eligible to apply for tuition assistance, the employee must be employed at least thirty hours per week, have satisfactorily completed six months of employment with the University, and have been admitted to the University through the appropriate admissions process.

To meet the reimbursement conditions of the Budget and Control Board guidelines without requiring temporary grant employees to pay full tuition at the beginning of the academic term, the University has developed a Promissory Note for the employee to sign, for an amount equaling the tuition for the course. The Note will be considered paid in full and fully satisfied if the employee receives a final grade in the course of "C" or better. In the event the final grade is lower than a "C" (e.g., "D," "F," "W," "WF," or "Incomplete"), the employee agrees to pay the Note in full within ten days from the date final grades are posted by the Registrar.

For your review, here is a copy of the Application for Tuition Assistance for Temporary Grant Employees/Promissory Note. The Tuition Assistance Application/Promissory Note is formatted with Adobe's Acrobat Reader®. If you do not have Acrobat Reader, you can download it from Adobe's website for no charge.

If you wish to participate in the tuition assistance program, please print out and complete the Application portion of the document and bring it to either of the following locations on the Columbia campus, or to the Human Resources office on the four- and two-year campuses:

1. HR Office of Salary Administration, 1600 Hampton Street, Ste. 804.
2. HR Vice President's Office, Suite 202, Osborne Administration Building. The staff contact is Margie Hammonds at 777-3824.

Thank you for your understanding as we work to find a permanent solution to this problem.

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