On her first day as a communications specialist in the Feinberg School of Medicine, Julie Bednark put up a wall calendar and marked Feb. 1, 2026, as the first day she would be able to take classes at Northwestern. 

Bednark was looking forward to the University’s Enhanced Employee Reduced Tuition benefit, which allowed NU employees with an annual salary of less than $100,000 to take unlimited classes with 90% reduced tuition after three years of continuous, full time, benefits-eligible service. 

But on June 12, the University announced the end of the EER benefit beginning Jan. 1, 2026, a month before Bednark would become eligible.

“The reason I took the job was because, after three years, I was promised these benefits,” Bednark said.

Now, the annual limit is capped at $12,000 through the Employee Reduced Tuition benefit.

In the same June 12 announcement, the University introduced an annual limit of $5,250 for non-credit courses through the ER benefit, and the discount for no-degree lessons taken at Bienen Music School’s Music Academy will be discontinued.

For new or rehired faculty and staff, the ER benefit will have a limit of $5,250 for all courses taken at the University. Additionally, the Dependent Portable Tuition plan for new or rehired employees, which provides money towards dependents’ undergraduate education at other U.S. universities, will be reduced from up to 50% of billed tuition to 40%.

These changes come as the University grapples with managing costs after the Trump administration froze $790 million in funding for NU in April. Later in the summer, the University also eliminated more than 400 staff positions. 

On Aug. 12, Bednark and other staff members launched a petition under the NU Together for Tuition Coalition, calling for the immediate retraction of the policy changes announced on June 12, or at least the reinstatement of the EER benefit for current employees.

“I’m really hoping that the people who make decisions about these benefits can see why it’s so important for (current staff) to be at least grandfathered in if we’ve already started something that we have intentions of completing based on the time that we’ve put into our programs, in addition to the time that we’ve put into our positions,” said Michaela Marchi, a program assistant at the Center for Native American and Indigenous Research working toward a master’s degree in sound arts and industries.

Initially, the petition was launched on social media with staff members tagging University President Michael Schill and other members of university leadership, but Bednark said during the first week of October, the petition will be delivered to University administration in person as well as by email.

As of Sept. 1, the petition has just under 800 signatories.

“This policy reversal represents not only a broken promise to Northwestern staff but a direct threat to the University’s ability to recruit, retain, and grow a skilled and committed workforce,” the petition reads. 

The petition also noted that the capped benefit only covers about 1.5 classes per year for most programs, so completing a degree using the benefit could require over a decade.

Under the EER benefit, some staff members were able to work toward degrees in much shorter time frames. 

Research technologist Louis Van Camp, is about halfway towards getting his master’s in sound arts and industries. Without the tuition benefit, Van Camp said he would have never been able to afford classes that allow him to pursue a lifelong passion.

“In just that one year, which was half of the master’s for me, my whole life was moving in a very optimistic, promising direction because the masters program provided me access to resources and people and connections that I didn’t have prior to that,” said Van Camp. “The idea of not having that anymore is devastating.”

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