University of Missouri graduate students are guaranteed their health insurance subsidies – at least for the next year.
University of Missouri Interim Chancellor Hank Foley released a statement Tuesday that said:
For at least one more year we will offer the same benefit to our graduate students that we have always offered.
Kristofferson Culmer is a member of the steering committee for the Forum on Graduate Rights and he said this decision is a positive thing for MU graduate students.
“That was the best of the options in terms of insurance,” Culmer said. “Grad Students are in the best position now, but we really want to see a long-term solution be implemented and that's going to take some time.”
Culmer also said the Forum on Graduate Rights will continue to voice the concerns of graduate students at MU as there is no guarantee of long-term stability when it comes to health insurance.
“Right now because of the situation with the insurance and why it was taken away in the first place still hasn’t been decided on a federal level in terms of whether there’s going to be an exception for universities, grad student insurance or not,” Culmer said.
In his memo Interim Chancellor Foley wrote that the University will continue to strive toward providing health insurance options to graduate students that are “nationally compensative” and are on par with those of MU’s peer institutions.
Culmer added that even with this decision, the Forum on Graduate Rights is still working to make sure a situation like last August - where the University abruptly announced the decision to eliminate grad student health insurance subsidies and then rescinded this plan after a week of graduate student-led protests - doesn’t happen again in this future.
“In the future who knows what may happen, and just ensuring that there's a recognized, collective voice of graduate student workers would be the best structure to ensure that - whatever the situation is - the best options are always made with regard to grad students. Whether it’s insurance or other work related issues that graduate students may have,” Culmer said.
