Government!
by JS
Once I get my paperwork in order, I’ll be an official member of graduate student assembly. Though I’ve committed to avoiding politics on this blog, I’m going to make an exception for the issues tackled by the GSA. I was definitely not a student government type in my previous iterations as a student, but having just returned from my first meeting, I can definitely see the appeal. I’ve become a more political person over the years, so it makes sense that I would enjoy something like this kind of local (microscopic really) representative organization.
The fireworks came at the end of the meeting over the particular wording of a resolution in support of health care for graduate students on fellowships. As a matter of policy, not providing good health insurance options for fellowship students is ridiculous. These are often the better students (though not necessarily — luck plays a part), and they suffer a financial disadvantage (and a corresponding disincentive) over students coming into a program to TA or RA here at UT.
Part of the problem with this situation is that it arises due to global structural problems with health care in this country, and not necessarily bad policy on the part of educational institutions hoping to attract talent. The lack of any individual providers of any quality is a large scale issue being played out in small scales here and elsewhere. I suspect that providing health care to fellowship students is similarly problematic at other institutions, and so UT may not be as at risk of losing good students for this particular reason.
But this kind of argument elides the point that the the private insurance market can’t even support providing quality, value-oriented policies to a minimally risky population of graduate students on fellowship.
UPDATE: I wonder whether the situation is better for students who go overseas or elsewhere. Universities in other countries weren’t really on my radar when I was applying to graduate school (and got a fellowship — and paid for terrible insurance). In retrospect, I know of a few programs that really should have been, and I wonder whether my situation with regards to benefits would have improved had I considered other options. I wonder to what extent parochial world views limit brain drain due to things like insurance at the level of graduate studies.
