The City of Hattiesburg and William Carey University have signed a memorandum of understanding to provide full-time employees with an opportunity to complete their undergraduate education.
“As we started to look at ways to continue to recruit quality policemen and firefighters, we took a hard look at our educational incentives,” said Mayor Toby Barker.
The agreement was authorized by a unanimous vote from the Hattiesburg City Council at the January 22 meeting, and will first be offered as a pilot program to full-time employees of the City of Hattiesburg’s Fire and Police Departments. Sworn police officers and firefighters will receive tuition-free assistance to go to William Carey for six hours per trimester.
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“We feel now that we have every incentive we need to continue to build our police force and our firefighters particularly as we continue to ramp up our public safety efforts. This is going to be a huge tool for us in terms of recruiting the best and brightest and keeping them with the Hattiesburg police department and the Hattiesburg fire department, but we are even more excited by the fact that all of our city employees’ children can now attend William Carey University at a 50% discount. It’s a big day for Hattiesburg.”
The agreement will also provide a 50% discount on undergraduate tuition for the children of City of Hattiesburg employees who are under the age of 25.
“Since William Carey opened in 1906 in Hattiesburg and has gone through a number of disasters, destroyed twice by fire, damaged by hurricanes and two years ago almost wiped out by the tornado,” said William Carey President Dr. Tommy King. “But, through all of that, the city of Hattiesburg has been supportive of us and we feel that we are one of the foster children for the city of Hattiesburg, that’s a good feeling to have and we’re happy now to be able to return the favor for so many years of support.”
