For the first time, WSU employees are able to waive tuition for Global Campus’ summer classes.

Global Campus lets students take courses online. Students are not required to be online at a set time during the day, said Dave Cillay, WSU Global Campus chancellor.

Cathy Lentz, program manager for Academic Outreach and Innovation (AOI), said the tuition waiver is available only for eligible employees.

Cillay said employees who hold student status are not eligible for the waiver.

Lentz said the waiver permits employees to only pay $5 per credit taken. For comparison, tuition for undergraduate students participating in Global Campus summer classes is $526 per credit. If there is a course fee, the employee will have to pay it because the waiver does not cover course fees, she said.

Employees may use the tuition waiver for up to four credits, but they can take a total of six credits, she said. However, they will have to pay in full for the remaining two credits.

In past semesters, employees have been able to receive waivers only on physical campuses. Global Campus has not offered waivers before, Lentz said.

The waiver is being offered this summer because there are no in-person classes, she said.

“We were finding that many of the courses that staff needed to enroll in to get their degree and continue on in their education were things that weren’t being offered on the Pullman campus or other physical campuses,” Cillay said.

However, many of those classes are being offered online, he said.

Lentz said the waiver has previously applied only to in-person classes, such as lectures or labs. Other classes not taught in classrooms, such as internships, even when being offered on physical campuses have not been eligible for the waiver.

Due to COVID-19, employees can use the waiver for Global Campus classes that are usually taught in person on other campuses, Lentz said.

Cillay said there is an application an employee must fill out to receive the waiver.

For the summer of 2019, Lentz said AOI processed 36 employee tuition waivers to be used for classes in Pullman. As of May 13, AOI has processed 20 waivers for employees who are eligible and able to be enrolled for this summer. 

Cillay said he expects the waiver to only be implemented for this summer. He said he believes courses will be available on the Pullman campus for summer 2021.