Regarding Janet Hornung's question about charging graduate student
tuition & fees to grants & contracts:

The University of Washington has been doing this for some time.  Most
government sponsors will pay for this, although it is called a "graduate
student operating fee" on the grant budget rather than "tuition" since the
latter is excludable by some funding sources.  The American Cancer
Society, for example, will not pay for tuition or fees no matter what we
call them.

The graduate student tuition and fees are considered part of the
compensation package for graduate students.  If a grant will pay for
"operating fees", then the student is paid a stipend according to a
particular payment schedule, and the grant is charged the operating fee.
The student is left with a small amount of fees to pay out of
pocket--items that are inappropriate for inclusion on a grant.  If a
grant will not pay for "operating fees", then the student is paid a
higher stipend which compensates him/her for graduate support as well as
tuition and fees.  The student then receives a tuition bill from the UW and
pays the tuition and fees directly.

Graduate students paid on grants and contracts, automatically receive a
"tuition waver" which allows out-of-state students to pay the in-state
rates.  In other words, the grant is charged in-state tuition and fees.
There is a limited number of waivers campus wide, but in practical terms
we've always had enough on the department level.

Up until our last indirect cost agreement with DHHS, indirect costs were
charged on the operating fee.  Now, the operating fee is excluded from
the modified total direct cost base.

Nancy Geiger
Dept of Microbiology
UW
xxxxxx@u.washington.edu