M E M O R A N D U M

April 13, 1998

TO:

MUFA Members

FROM:

B. Lynn, Remunerations Chair

RE:

Ballot - Tuition Bursary Proposal

The Joint Committee Agreement, March 13, 1997, contained an agreement to "establish a committee to develop and submit a revised bursary scheme with overall funding to stabilize at $200,000 after transition, subject to future negotiations." In May 1997, an Ad Hoc Committee, consisting of Bill Anderson (Geography & Geology), David Butterfield (Economics) and Anne Pottier (Mills Library), was established to review the current tuition bursary benefit and to recommend changes as they deemed appropriate. The Ad Hoc Committee consulted widely, surveyed members' preferences, and submitted their proposal in December 1997 which was approved by the Faculty Association Executive and by the Joint Committee (March 26, 1998).

The Ad Hoc Committee's recommendation was to continue the current tuition bursary programme for spouses and dependents of faculty and librarians, i.e.,

  1. the benefit will be in the form of a tuition bursary in the value of $75 per credit to a limit of $2250 per academic year for full or part-time study at McMaster for eligible spouses and dependents;

  2. eligibility is restricted (as with the current benefit) to spouses and dependent children under the age of 21, and dependent children between 21 and 25 who are full-time students, in line with the rules for other benefits;

  3. the academic requirements for the tuition bursary will be simply admission to McMaster and eligibility to continue at the University.

In its review of our members' preferences with respect to the tuition bursary benefit, more than 50% of respondents ranked the "McMaster only" option as preferred. For this reason, the Ad Hoc Committee felt that there was insufficient support to make a major change in the current benefit. Thus the Committee recommended maintaining the current benefit, with current eligibility, always allowing, of course, for revisions to be made in future negotiations.

One change described above (3) which has been suggested by the Committee and agreed to by the Association is the opening up of academic requirements to obtain the benefit. Under the tuition waiver, students simply had to meet minimum admission and continuation criteria at McMaster. The tuition bursary on the other hand required higher academic requirements than the minimum to qualify. Under the March 13, 1997 Agreement, students entering years 3 and 4 who had been on a tuition waiver (TW) were grandfathered in this benefit until their graduation. Those students who used the TW benefit for year 1 who were entering year 2, were expected to switch to the bursary. There were a number of students in this situation who did not meet the academic qualifications for the bursary, but they would have qualified for the tuition waiver. The Administration allowed these students to switch to the bursary nevertheless. In essence, what the Ad Hoc Committee has suggested, then, is to use the tuition bursary in its current form with the academic requirements from the tuition waiver. The Faculty Association Executive agreed with the Ad Hoc Committee that this makes the benefit fairer and sustains its equivalence with the tuition waiver benefit we have agreed to give up.

It should be noted that the Association representatives at the Joint Committee have reiterated their agreement that the tuition bursary benefit will in total, be capped at $200,000 in each of the two years of the current agreement. Any variation from the total of $400,000 for the two years will be a subject for the next set of negotiations.

We are asking your support for this proposal. We will discuss the proposal at the Annual General Meeting (Wednesday, April 22, 1998, 2:00 p.m., Convocation Hall) and you will have an opportunity for questions and to submit your vote at that time. The Faculty Association Executive believes this proposal to be a good one, in line with the preferences of our members for the form this benefit should take.