Participants in the campaign for affordable graduate student health care celebrated a victory yesterday, but student and faculty leaders know there is still more work to be done. University officials recommended Monday that the Board of Visitors institute a $900 per person annual subsidy for graduate student health care coverage. The plan would cost the University $1.8 million annually.
The Board will vote on the proposal at its June meeting.
If passed, the proposal will cover nearly 2,000 teaching and research assistants with annual earnings of at least $5,000 from the University. This covers about 60 percent of the graduate student population.
"I am optimistic that the Board will implement this proposal at its June meeting," Student Council President Joe Bilby said.
For many proponents of graduate student health insurance, the University's 60 percent coverage proposal is not enough.
"Although we are grateful, we want to make it clear that we will continue to advocate until 100 percent are covered," said Justin Gifford, a Graduate Labor Alliance member and an English Ph.D. student who has lead the health care fight.
The Graduate Labor Alliance is a group of graduate students who campaign for better wages, stipends and insurance coverage.
"One hundred percent is the goal, but we're realists," said David T. Gies, a Spanish professor and former Faculty Senate chairman. The proposal "is a start and the first step in making people realize that this is an important issue."
Gifford circulated a petition on the Lawn yesterday and collected nearly 1,000 signatures in support of full health care coverage for graduate students, he said.
Many members of the faculty also are behind the effort to provide health insurance to graduate students, many of whom serve as TA's in large lecture classes or teach introductory courses in English writing and other subjects.
"Graduate students are the academic life of the University," Gies said. "The University would grind to a halt without them."
Many public and private national universities, such as Harvard, the University of Michigan and Vanderbilt University provide health care coverage for their graduate students.
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