At the January 19 Faculty Senate Meeting, Dr. Chantale B茅gin, from the Department of Integrative Biology, presented information on the Tuition Exchange Program (TEP) from documentation modified from previous work done by Dr. Lee Braverman. She, along with members of the College of Arts and Sciences Faculty Council, had met with Dean Eisenberg and with Angela Sklenka (Chief Human Resource Officer) in 2020 to discuss the possibility. She brought this information to the Faculty Senate to gain support for this proposal.
The TEP is consortium of universities that allow dependents from member universities to attend each other for zero, or seriously discounted, tuition costs. Dependents of USF faculty that attend other universities would be 鈥渆xports,鈥� and students attending USF that are dependents from other consortium members faculty would be 鈥渋mports.鈥� The acceptance process does not change for imports or exports, but once they are accepted, only tuition rates would be affected. Students would still be expected to pay for living expenses or other costs. There is a lot of flexibility in how the program is implemented at each institution, so USF could choose some of the associated costs.
The benefits to USF include attracting and retaining high quality faculty, administration, and staff. Multiple faculty senators shared stories of faculty who turned down jobs or stayed at ones they did not like for programs like these. Additionally, joining this program would be joining some of the best universities in the country 鈥� including 6 AAU institutions. We would also increase the geographic diversity of our student body as imports came from all over the country.
Costs are relatively low. There is a one-time initiation fee of $350 and $550 in annual dues. Additionally, there is an annual fee of $40 per export. Our lost revenue would be limited to the fee waiver given to in-state students; out-of-state students pay half the out-of-state tuition 鈥� this is still more than in-state tuition. There are relatively few imports per year; average number across participating schools is ~2.5 per school. USF would have the choice to offer free tuition or a reduced rate.
The Faculty Senate voted unanimously in support of a motion to share with the administration that the Faculty Senate supports this proposal and to ask that HR comes to meet with the Faculty Senate to discuss feasibility of implementation.