Tuition program, hard work pay off for Urquidez’s daughters
Retired plumber Benny Urquidez with daughters Cindy (left), a youth advocate, and Julie (right), a speech pathologist. The university's Tuition Grant Program helped pay for both daughters' college education
BY JON ANN LINDSEY
When his campus colleagues retired his Plumber No. 5 radio moniker last month, Benny Urquidez went out with a flourish after 20 years on the job. At a barbecue featuring five cakes and a shower of gifts, he used a "golden plunger" he received as a baton to lead a surprise visit from the Stanford Band.
Perhaps the only cheers louder than the horn section on Urquidez's last day of work—his 65th birthday—came from his family, including his daughters Julie, 33, and Cindy, 30. Cindy, who was just 10 when her father began wielding his wrench at Stanford, went on to earn her undergraduate degree here, graduating in 1998 with a double major in American studies and Spanish.
"I didn't come here because I had a college recruiter; I didn't come here because a college counselor told me that I should apply to Stanford; I didn't come here because I had other members of my family who had come to Stanford," Cindy told the scores of well-wishers at the Facilities Operations corporation yard. "I just came to Stanford because I wanted to come to work with my Papi."
Cindy fulfilled that ambition in large part because of the university's Tuition Grant Program (TGP), which paid half of her tuition for four years as part of her father's employee benefits. He also had used the grant toward Julie's degree from the University of the Pacific a few years earlier.
In the Bay Area, where universities compete for employees with high-tech companies that can dazzle jobseekers with stock options and hefty bonuses, an employee benefit such as the Tuition Grant Program plays a major role in attracting the 50,000 people who apply for jobs at Stanford each year.
"The Tuition Grant Program is an important and unique benefit for Stanford," said Provost John Etchemendy. "Not only does it help us recruit and retain the best faculty and staff, it also reinforces our educational mission and values."
Urquidez, whose children are among thousands who have gone through universities, community colleges and trade schools using Stanford's benefit, said having that supplement was "fantastic—real nice."
"I would have been in tremendous debt by now," he said. "I feel like I owe Stanford a lot for giving an education to my daughters. I'm so thankful for that."
While many students use their grants for four-year universities, the range of institutions they're eligible to attend goes far beyond ivy-covered walls. Business colleges, technical schools and preschool training centers are among the more than 7,000 accredited non-degree-granting schools that qualify.
Patricia Crosby, who administers Stanford's program, said the children of about 1,200 faculty and staff members are receiving the grant for the current academic year, up about 15 percent from two years ago. The university's contribution for fiscal 2006 is $11 million.
The grant, open to benefits-eligible employees after five years of service, pays up to half the amount of Stanford's tuition for their children to attend any accredited college or trade school. For 2006-07, the maximum amount will be $16,497. Program guidelines stipulate that the money can be used only toward the tuition portion of a student's bill—books, room and board, and lab fees are not covered.
The TGP has had several incarnations over the years. Before 1969, it covered four years of tuition, but only at Stanford; in another version it paid for other institutions, but only full-time employees' children were eligible.
The current program, expanded to part-time employees who work at least half time on a pro-rated basis, was introduced in 2001 after a review of a 1999 change that had capped the grant at $4,000 annually.
A 2005 survey of 369 colleges and universities by the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources found that 95 percent offered financial assistance for employees themselves to take classes, as does Stanford, through its Staff Tuition Reimbursement Program and Staff Training Assistance Program. Although the survey didn't break it out, the number of schools that extend their tuition coverage to employees' dependents appears to be quite a bit smaller.
Further, Stanford's program is among the most comprehensive in the amount of money awarded, the range of employees who qualify and the variety of schools students can attend.
"There are very few places you can go where you can get this kind of benefit," Crosby said.
Princeton, for example, caps its grant at $10,830, according to its website. Cornell pays half tuition and fees for employees' children who attend that university, but that drops to 30 percent of the chosen school's tuition for those who go elsewhere. Santa Clara University is part of a scholarship exchange program that pays up to $23,500 a year, but it's a competitive application process rather than an automatic grant.
For Plumber No. 5, the grant means he can retire without the burden of debt. And his daughters share the pride of a high-school-educated father who wanted to put his children through college.
"I'm proud to be a blue-collar kid," Cindy Urquidez said. "I think personally it's an affirmation of my own abilities for academic excellence as well as my dad's hard work to be able to come to a place like this and work here and excel."
Jon Ann Lindsey is a writer in the Office of University Communications.