Tuition break casualty of merger

Jeannie Nye's 9-year-old twin sons were going to attend Penn State someday -- the athletic twosome wanted to play football for the University.

Nye told her sons that they had no choice but to attend the University, because of the 75 percent tuition reduction allotted to University employees for their children.

Now Nye, an employee for the University's Hershey Medical Center and a single parent, is not so sure she can afford to send her sons to the University.

"I don't see where I could possibly afford it on my own," she said, adding that the only way her sons can go to the University is through scholarships.

Many medical center employees are feeling the shock of the University's plan to phase out the 75 percent tuition reduction for those employees who are transferring to the Penn State Geisinger Health System.

The tuition benefit plan will be phased out for the Hershey employees, said Dr. Bruce Hamory, chief operating officer for Hershey.

Hershey employees will no longer work for the University after July 1, he said, because they will transfer to the Penn State Geisinger Health System if everything is approved.

The administrators of the changing health system will still try to help employees who have children at the University, or who will be attending the University soon, Hamory said.

Employees who have been working for Hershey more than six years are being provided with up to six years of tuition benefits, to provide their children with the opportunity to attend the University.

That would mean a current junior in high school, whose parents have transferred to the new health system, would be able to attend the University with a tuition benefit, Hamory explained.

People who have been employed by Hershey for less than six years, will receive one year of credit for each year of employment, Hamory said.

The new health system does allow for employees to receive tuition benefits to attend any university if they are furthering work-related education, Hamory said, but this benefit does not extend to the families of employees.

Carole Bean, department head of Hershey's Special Kids Network, said she is grateful that she already put her three children through the University with the tuition benefits.

"It's kind of a family joke that all three of us are Penn Staters in one way or another -- and now I'm not," she said.

The medical center and Geisinger Health System announced their merger at the Jan. 17 University Board of Trustees meeting. The College of Medicine employees will not be affected by this transition, because they will remain University employees.

The University is now planning to phase out retirement benefits for Hershey employees who will then be covered under the merged system's health plan, which is similar to Geisinger's plan, said University President Graham Spanier in an E-mail message.

A change in the retirement plan, which varies for those employees who have worked for a number of years at Hershey, is another effect of the merger, Hamory said. It is likely that most employees will transfer their benefit plans to that of the Penn State Geisinger Health System, he added.

The retirement plan change is also causing confusion for Bean, who is eight years from retirement. She said she will not have the same amount of money to put away for her retirement because of the switch to Geisinger.

Other Hershey employees are just going to accept the conditions of the phasing out as they come.

"If the benefit is no longer available, then it's not available, and we'll have to make accommodations," said one-year employee Alan Bailey, director of strategic planning and marketing for Hershey.

Bailey, who has one son attending the University and two others who are not, said he put himself through school, and he knows other people who put their children through school with no tuition benefits. He said he understands why the privilege may not exist and is not angry about the phasing out.

"That's not to say that I don't understand that it may be very difficult for some families," he said.