Three Things You Should Know About This Month
The academic year is behind us and fall will be here before you know it. It’s time to start thinking about how to access your education benefits for you and/or your eligible family members for the 2015-2016 school year.
1) Tuition Cash Grant for Exempt Staff and Faculty
If you are an exempt staff or faculty member and have a child attending a college or university other than Lehigh for undergraduate studies in the fall, you may be eligible for the annual Tuition Cash Grant benefit. The benefit does vary depending on when you began your employment at Lehigh, so you will want to review the information provided on the HR website.
If you are eligible, please contact Betty Konczyk or Alice Sikorski from the HR team to get the process started so that you can take advantage of the benefit.
2) Lehigh Tuition Remission
Our tuition remission benefit for dependents includes undergraduate and graduate study. There are a few eligibility requirements and conditions you should be aware of. Visit the HR website for those details.
Staff and faculty who have dependents or spouse/partners planning to attend Lehigh this fall (or summer) should reach out to our education benefits team of Betty and Alice.
Perhaps you or one of your eligible family members would like to take a class via distance education at Lehigh. There are some important things you need to know about how distance education benefits differ from our campus-based education benefits.
First, distance education courses are only eligible for tuition remission benefits if there are no campus-based sections of the course offered at Lehigh. Distance education must be the only method available to complete the course at Lehigh for employees and their eligible family members to use education benefits.
Finally, be aware that if you or your family member does enroll in a distance education course, you will be responsible for paying the technical and course support fees that are assessed for these courses. For more information, see the Distance Education Tuition Remission Policy on their website.
3) LVAIC Tuition Exchange for Staff, Faculty, and Spouses/Partners
Since, we’re discussing education benefits, we thought we’d also mention some of the unique features of the tuition benefits offered through Lehigh’s membership in the Lehigh Valley Association of Independent Colleges, or LVAIC.
First, LVAIC benefits in general only apply to undergraduate courses. Dependents aren’t eligible for LVAIC tuition remission. Spouses and partners may partake of this benefit in addition to faculty and staff, but only during the fall and spring semesters. In other words, only Lehigh staff and faculty may use the LVAIC tuition benefit during the summer.
For more information on LVAIC tuition remission benefits, visit the HR website.