When the School of the Art Institute of Chicago laid off 20 employees in November, citing financial difficulties, Joe Behen, dean of student health, was among them. He has worked at this institution for over 30 years. Although he has made peace with losing his job—”I’m moving on,” he said—one question remained: What will happen to his daughter’s exchange scholarship?
Chloe Behen is a sophomore at the University of Southern California, and she can’t imagine going anywhere else. “USC has been the best school I’ve ever been to,” he said. “And I’m not just saying that, I’ve met the best people, I have the best roommates. I love everything I’m involved in. I love people [cognitive science] great, I love the weather, I love the people, the teachers, the facilities here.”
Eighty percent of Chloe’s USC tuition—or about $60,000—is paid for through a tuition exchange scholarship, a program that matches higher education employees and their dependents with scholarships to attend participating institutions at a substantial discount. He is one of 7,800 students across the country who participated in the scholarship exchange program this year. Eligibility criteria are set by the exporting institution—in other words, the institution where the beneficiary is employed determines which workers can apply for a study exchange. In Behens’ case, that was SAIC. The scholarship is awarded by the institution where the employee or dependent is enrolled—Chloe’s USC. The Tuition Exchange, a non-profit organization that counts more than 700 member institutions, connects the two.
Intercollegiate exchanges benefit students and staff at all member institutions, explains Kristin Tichenor, Tuition Exchange president. “The reciprocity at the heart of the exchange program is based on the idea that students are transferred from one TE campus to the next,” he said.
Joe contacted SAIC officials on March 14 to ask what would happen to Chloe’s scholarship, but did not hear back. Followed up on March 21st but still no response.
A SAIC spokesperson told Within Higher Ed that the exchange scholarship benefit is “reserved only for our active, current employees and their eligible dependents.”
Any regionally accredited not-for-profit institution is welcome to join the Tuition Exchange network. Members must pay a one-time initiation fee of $500 and an annual membership fee of $750. In addition, the college or university pays the Tuition Exchange an annual fee of $55 for each sending student—a cost they can pass on to participating families. All member institutions commit to providing at least three study-exchange scholarships per year, and are not required to balance those study grants with their number of exchange students.
Most scholarships are equal to the total cost of tuition at the host institution or at least, the Tuition Exchange’s annual “standard rate,” which is the effective average of tuition rates at all member institutions, Tichenor said. For the 2025-26 academic year, the amount is $43,000. Next year, it will be $44,000, according to the Tuition Exchange website.
Without the scholarship, Chloe would not have enrolled at USC.
The Tuition Exchange “changed my whole decision,” he said. “I applied to 18 schools. In the end, I had to decide between USC and [the University of California, Los Angeles]. If I had lived closer to Chicago, I probably would have gone to Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, but of all those schools, even with Illinois in-state tuition, USC was cheaper.”
In total, America’s colleges and universities cut at least 9,000 jobs by 2025. Given the layoff rate and the number of scholarship recipients, Joe estimates that at least dozens, perhaps hundreds, of students have received their education the same way.
On March 11, the Tuition Exchange sent a new protocol to member institutions to provide clarity on this issue.
“Over the past year, we have received inquiries from several member institutions asking, ‘How can we extend the eligibility of the scholarship?’ especially in anticipation of power cuts,” said Tichenor. “Our response to them was: Good news. You have always had the ability to support the staff involved and their students who are students in these situations.”
That means institutions that have laid off employees who have dependents who use the tuition exchange can decide whether those employees should remain eligible for the remainder of their students’ tuition—a decision that doesn’t come without additional costs to the institution, Tichenor explained. If the institution confirms the former employee’s eligibility, the family may purchase extended eligibility from the Tuition Exchange for $300 per semester.
“Once the family has done so, TE Central will be responsible for ensuring the eligibility of the scholarship for the remainder of the student’s degree program, in accordance with their initial Tuition Exchange Scholarship offer,” said the law. But without the green light from the export agency, Tuition Exchange’s hands are tied.
‘Worst Nightmare’
For Joe, deciding to extend eligibility is a no-brainer. A mental health advocate all his life, he has been on a campaign to raise awareness about how the uncertainty and loss of scholarships affects the mental health of students. He started a petition in early March asking college presidents to commit to making sure they would exchange tuition fees for laid-off workers.
“For outside observers, it’s clear what needs to be done … Don’t cut people’s scholarships,” Joe said. “The idea that the parents of these students lose their jobs and lose their scholarship is like a nightmare.”
You have connected with many other parents on Facebook who are in the same place. One user shared that they were fired from a private facility last year. On the weekend of teaching their child at an out-of-state college, they found out that they had lost their tuition exchange scholarship.
Lara DeRuisseau, another Facebook user connected to Joe, is waiting to hear what will happen to her daughter’s possible scholarship next year. The University of Missouri where her husband, a tenured faculty member, works has been acquired, and she will lose her position within the next year.
“It still felt like there was a lot to take in,” he said Within Higher Ed. “He lost his job, and it was no longer possible to send my daughter to school.”
DeRuisseau doesn’t know if the university will continue to qualify for her daughter’s tuition. Her daughter is currently a senior in high school, and the exchange option “dominated” her college search, DeRuisseau said. It was a competitive process.
“This is not a guarantee by any means,” DeRuisseau said of the scholarships. “It turns out that many schools only offered three to four [tuition-exchange] scholarships, and these are schools with tens of thousands of students.”
However, his daughter was accepted on a scholarship to study at three institutions. If he can’t keep it, he may have to go to the state flag, DeRuisseau said.
Joe said he would “borrow, beg and steal” before taking Chloe out of USC.
“We’ll find you one way or another,” he said. “We will get rid of him, but not every family can do that.”
