There’s a reason professors are smiling.
This year, unique admissions consulting programs add to the wide range of family-oriented services and benefits for Penn faculty and staff.
“We completely revamped the programs,” Regional Director of Admissions Tiffany Fujioka wrote in an e-mail regarding the Admissions Office’s new program for children of faculty and staff who are soon applying to college.
Instead of just holding one “catch-all” program in the fall, admissions created three separate services with age-specific meetings.
In June, children of faculty and staff came to the Admissions Office with their parents for a ‘College Admissions 101’ workshop. Eighth and ninth graders focused on topics like discovering interests and choosing courses, while high school sophomores, juniors and seniors met to discuss future college choices and campus visits.
Two months later, the upperclassmen were invited back to College Hall for another program in which parents and students assessed mock college applications.
“This is the first year we’ve done this big of an outreach,” Dean of Admissions Eric Furda said. Close to 150 people attended each event, he added.
The Admissions Office also offered walk-in college advising hours from June through September on the last Thursday of every month.
Fujioka emphasized that the office realizes that not everyone wants to come to Penn.
Still, tuition deals for faculty and staff children — another family-oriented benefit — makes applying to Penn even more appealing.
“My mom has worked at Penn for 30 years, and she specifically did not quit so I could get a discount,” College sophomore Chris Carroll said.
Carroll, like other children of Penn employees who choose to attend the University, receives a 75-percent discount on Penn’s approximately $36,000 tuition. Faculty and staff members must have worked at Penn for at least three years in order to receive this benefit.
Had Carroll chosen to go to college elsewhere, the University would have provided 40-percent of Penn tuition for him to use at another college.
“We know benefits are very important for hiring and retention,” Lubna Mian, director of faculty development and equity at the Office of the Provost, said. “It’s obviously very critical that people who are professionals can incorporate those [family-related] factors into their lives here.”
Last year, Penn created two new services for University employees with younger children.
The first reimburses faculty and staff up to $5,000 for adoption expenses. This money can cover related legal fees and travel expenses, Mian said.
The second benefit is back-up childcare. For a varying cost based on the Penn employee’s salary, parents can call someone at short notice to watch their children during the workday. Parents call when sickness or weather prevents their child from attending their normal day care or school, according to Mian.
She also mentioned policies for workload release or a lengthened tenure clock when faculty members welcome children — either by birth, adoption or other circumstance — into their home.
Michael Felker, graduate coordinator for the Department of Computer and Information Science, appreciates another benefit: insurance for domestic partners as well as spouses.
Felker’s partner has been on Penn’s faculty health care plan for six years.
“When my partner broke his knee a couple years ago, the operation and health care probably would have cost close to a million dollars,” he said. “The insurance covered it. It was wonderful.”
