Charge-back Process for Grants & Contracts: Graduate Tuition Waivers

If a student has at least a 0.25 FTE assistantship and at least some portion of that appointment is paid by a grant, and if there are no prohibitions imposed by the granting agency, then that grant is responsible for some or all of the resident educational fees for that student which were waived by the Graduate Student Tuition Waiver Program at the beginning of the term. These fees are identified as student aid when submitted on grant budgets.

Therefore, the budgets requesting support for a Graduate Research Assistant (GRA) should include the normal 8 percent fringe benefits requested for student and part-time employees plus the amount of the Tuition Waiver Program resident educational fee waiver, normally calculated at 9 hours per semester.

Note: If a student has an assistantship paid by a grant and takes more than 9 hours in a semester, the grant will be charged for the entire GSSP resident educational fee waiver, not just the 9 hours budgeted.

Charge-Back Process

1. Employment information as specified on the Certification of Eligibility through the Payroll System.
2. Funding lines in Payroll will be matched with the student information data.
3. The Graduate Student Tuition Waiver Program resident educational fee waiver is pro-rated based on eligible funding lines. A listing of students receiving waivers and their funding lines are compared to the budget information in PeopleSoft to determine the grant(s) that can be charged the waiver. If a grant has no budget information, then the question is put to the Office of Sponsored Programs to see if the grant can be charged or not. The students funded on grants with budgets will be sent in an electronic file to Accounting to upload and charge back the grants — this is considered the first run.
4. After the Office of Sponsored Programs reviews the grant(s) without budgets and informs the Graduate Student Tuition Waiver Program which grant(s) can be charged, a second electronic file is given to Accounting to upload the data and charge back the grant(s) — this is the second run.
5. Departments and programs are notified that the charges have been applied. If they have any questions, they need to call the Graduate Student Tuition Waiver Program coordinator in the Graduate School at 884-2326.

Budgeting for Summer Session Tuition Through Grants

For all grants written since August 15, 2002, the grant must also budget for the summer session fees (learn more from this letter - pdf). If the grant budget did not include funding for a GRA, but one is subsequently hired, and that grant does pay for student aid, then the grant is responsible for payment of the resident educational fees for the period the student was appointed a GRA.

Students With More Than One Qualified Funding Source

If a student has more than one assistantship, or an assistantship and a fellowship, the cost of the resident educational tuition waiver will be split between the assistantship(s) and/or fellowship(s). The amount charged to each grant will be pro-rated based on the amount being paid by each award or the FTE's (if both appointments are assistantships).

Questions About Granting Agencies & Tuition Coverage

If a principal investigator (PI) who is preparing a grant proposal is uncertain if the granting agency will cover educational fee costs as student aid, the PI needs to contact the Office of Sponsored Programs. If a PI wishes to have a Graduate Student Tuition Waiver Program waiver as a cost-share for a grant, s/he will need to petition the dean of the Graduate School at the time that they are preparing the proposal and complete the Waiver Cost Share form (pdf).