University of Minnesota employees working on their first degree will have their tuition fully covered, U President Eric Kaler announced Friday, undoing a cut to the scholarship program.

But employees seeking their second degree would continuing paying 25 percent of tuition, he said.

Clerical employees have long called for the Regents Scholarship to be reinstated. It was reduced from full coverage to 90 percent for first degrees under past President Robert Bruininks during budget cuts in 2009.

I will check with union leaders to see whether this partial reinstatement satisfies their concerns.

In the meantime, here's what I wrote last month about what clerical workers told the Board of Regents at a public forum: