THE BIGGEST thing I will miss when I graduate next year and truly live the adult life is my health insurance. Mom and Dad pay, and they have to worry about picking from all those confusing plans, not me. But at least I probably will have a job where my employer subsidizes my costs, and confusing choices are better than none at all.
Graduate students here, by contrast, pay their premiums and don't have real choices. The administration has finally come up with a plan to help most teaching assistants pay their premiums, but the Board of Visitors has final say. Everyone at the University needs to make their voices heard to ensure that the Board approves the plan.
The University said last Wednesday that it will submit as part of the annual budget a proposal to give all graduate students who either earn $5,000 a year from teaching or have fellowships of $5,000 a subsidy of $900 to pay for health insurance. This is the cost of the basic health plan that QualChoice offers for single students. The University estimates that about 60 percent of graduate students will be covered; the money will come out of the unrestricted endowment.
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Although this is the first time students have gotten the administration to put forward a proposal, students have been voicing concerns for years. The voices have grown as premiums have increased at a faster rate, and the University has lost its recruiting edge to peer institutions, such as the University of North Carolina, that do subsidize graduate student health insurance.
What is new about the effort for graduate student health care is the visibility of the effort in the University community. Part of this comes from greater student willingness to organize, and seeing figures that support their demands.
Yet support by non-graduate students also has a great deal to do with this visibility. In an interview earlier this semester, outgoing Graduate Student Council President Patrick McGuinn agreed that both University media and Student Council had shown a much greater degree of interest and awareness in the issue of graduate student health care than in the past. He feels this has assisted graduate students in their attempts to gain funding.
This isn't an opportunity for self-congratulation, but a realization that groups at U.Va. have a better chance of getting what they want if they have a widespread support base. Having support, though, is not the same as having obvious, visible support. Members of the community need to show the Board that health insurance is a priority for us, and we approve of this use of our money, instead of simply assuming it will pass.
Just because the proposal has come up doesn't mean the Board will act. This was shown in the Board's neglect of the issue of the University's investments in Unocal, a company that deals directly with the Burmese junta.
Council passed a resolution urging the Board to order a divestment of University stock in Unocal, with only one dissenting vote. No groups on Grounds have come out against the resolution, either of students or faculty and administration.
The Board, however, refused to even discuss the matter at the last meeting two weeks ago. Students are stepping up the pressure in hope of forcing the Board to reconsider in June.
In order to avoid having the same happen with graduate student health insurance, the community needs to keep the light on the issue and constantly reiterate our support. If the Board sees that we not only support the graduate students, but also support them vocally, they will be more likely to act than if they can simply ignore the issue.
No member of the Board has publicly taken a position on the issue of subsidizing premiums, so we don't know how they feel. However, the Commonwealth's budget problems are in the background. By taking the estimated $1.8 million needed to implement this new service, the administration has wisely found a source of funding that is under our control, not James S. Gilmore III's. But the budget-tightening mentality automatically will cause any new spending to come under scrutiny.
The University community will have its next important chance to show support tomorrow, in a rally organized by the Graduate Labor Alliance. Graduate students and their allies will urge the Board to approve the proposal. Anyone who agrees needs to come and show that this is important to the University.
Graduate health insurance subsidies are not yet assured, and vocal support by the community is the most important way to make certain it happens. Undergraduates need to lend their support, because as students we stand or fall together. Teaching assistants are the backbone of this university, and it is time that we show our appreciation.
(Elizabeth Managan's column appears Tuesdays in The Cavalier Daily. She can be reached at emanagan@cavalierdaily.com.)
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