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Reed Hutchinson UCLA Photographic Services
Arturo Nuño, dining manager at De Neve cafeteria,
is working toward a B.A. with support from his supervisors
and the help of a program that allows employees to pay reduced
fees.
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Midterms, papers part of life for some workers
by Cynthia Lee
ucla today Staff
Twenty years ago, Cia Ford started down two different paths. Her
first path with the UCLA Alumni Association led to a professional
career as a senior marketing manager. The other path was to have
led to a college degree, but it proved to be less direct than she
originally planned.
That journey began at Santa Monica College, where Ford took classes
on and off over two decades. Now Ford has her feet firmly planted
on a more direct route to a B.A. in French — as a part-time
UCLA student and a full-time employee.
Ford discovered that being a college student and a full-time employee
were not mutually exclusive. In fact, 57 full-time UCLA employees
this year are continuing their undergraduate and graduate education
at UCLA with the help of a discounted fee program available to staff.
With the approval of their department heads, they apply each quarter
to the systemwide Reduced Fee Enrollment Program, overseen at UCLA
by Campus Human Resources. Regular-status career employees receive
a two-thirds reduction in both the university registration fee and
the educational fee if they get into UCLA on their own. Under the
program, eligible employees can take up to three undergraduate or
graduate-level courses, or up to nine units per quarter, whichever
provides the greater benefit to the employee.
“It’s a wonderful benefit,” said Ford, who is
taking her first UCLA class this quarter. She was also selected
an Alumni Scholar by the Alumni Association’s scholarship
committee.
While it isn’t easy taking classes, studying or writing papers
during a lunch hour, on weekends or at night, employees who have
tapped into this benefit are grateful for it.
Last June, Andrea Lynch, a library assistant in the Louise M. Darling
Biomedical Library, received her master’s degree in library
science three years after she started the program. In addition to
the educational discount, Lynch benefited from a special fund for
professional development of library staff to help pay for prep courses
she needed for admission as well as tuition for three years of graduate
school. Darling, the first director of the biomedical library, bequeathed
part of her estate to set up the fund. The library also offers staff
six hours of paid time off weekly to attend classes.
Even with all this support, Lynch said the discounted fee program
was a lifesaver. “I don’t know what I would have done
without it. I would have had to take out loans.”
Arturo Nuño, dining manager at the De Neve cafeteria, has
also received a lot of support from his supervisors to continue
his college career. He was a UCLA student who dropped out and came
back to school as a full-time UCLA employee paying discounted fees.
He will graduate in June with a B.A. in Chicano/a studies. “Paying
reduced fees really serves as an incentive for employees who want
to better themselves through education,” said Nuño,
who works afternoons and evenings. “This will allow me to
contribute more to the university in the long run.”
A full-time graduate student in 1997, Karen Burgess also took a
leave of absence from UCLA before she could finish her Ph.D. thesis.
Four years ago, she reenrolled as a staff employee on the reduced
fees program. “I couldn’t have stayed enrolled without
that program,” said Burgess, who is program coordinator at
the Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies and a new Ph.D.
in folklore and mythology.
“If I hadn’t stayed enrolled, I might have fallen by
the wayside.”
To find out more about the reduced fee program and other educational
benefits for staff, go to www.chr.ucla.edu/chr/ppaa/uclaproc/51.htm.
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