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Extramural Program

This program encourages you to take academic courses to help improve job performance and assist in your career and personal development.

Eligibility
All regular, nonacademic employees, non-professorial academic staff who do not hold voting rights at any college, university, or graduate facility, and ROTC military personnel are eligible to enroll in up to four credit hours per semester on a space-available basis with the permission of his/her supervisor, the department head, and the instructor. Eligibility must be met on or before the first day of classes for the semester in which you are applying for funding. The four credits may include courses taken for credit or on an audit basis. Employee participation in this program is limited to courses that are offered for credit through the Office of Continuing Education and Summer Session, B20 Day Hall, 255-4987.

Listed below are the various university status’ and their eligibility for this program. Please keep in mind that you must be benefits eligible on the first day of classes in order to use this benefit.

General Information: You must register through the Office of Continuing Education and Summer Session, B20 Day Hall. Registration should be done with the approval of your supervisor, department head, and the course instructor. You must comply with all regulations and procedures contained in the course brochure and must fulfill all registration requirements within the first two weeks of the semester. As an employee, you are admitted into a course on a space-available basis and may be asked to withdraw if space is required to accommodate regular Cornell students. You must have permission from your supervisor to take the course. You may use a combination of Tuition Aid and Extramural but the total number of credits for reimbursement cannot exceed four per semester. For more information.

Tuition payment: Tuition payment will be made for coursework up to four credit hours per semester. You will be responsible for payment of coursework in excess of the four credit hours. If you terminate employment while taking a course for which tuition has been waived, you must either withdraw from the course within the time limits stated in the Extramural course brochure or pay the full tuition charge.

Taxation of Benefit: employees who enroll for four credits through Extramural are not taxed on the value of the course. For those employees who are in graduate degree programs at Cornell, all coursework is taxable after the first $5,250* of employer-paid tuition has been met during any given calendar year. This taxable value is also calculated for classes that are audited.

*Section 127 of the IRC was reinstated with the passage of the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001. The reinstated code is effective January 1, 2002 through December 31, 2010.

Release Time: Supervisors have the discretion to either grant release time for time away from work to attend class or to require that all or part of the time be made up when the absence from work interferes with the department’s operational requirements. In cases where your supervisor has requested that a course be taken, you are not required to make up time. Release time that is granted for Extramural study will be recorded as leave with pay. Part-time employees are generally expected to take course outside of regular working hours.