After Graduate Student Senate's successful lobbying campaign, Ohio University will subsidize graduate assistant health care. Graduate assistants can look forward to a $110,000 subsidy next year. It's good to see the university doing something tangible for a group of students.
The program works out so that a full-time graduate assistant will receive approximately a $100 subsidy per year. This isn't much ' the subsidy only covers about 10 percent of graduate assistant health care costs ' but it's a step in the right direction. Graduate assistants have always been required to purchase health care, and it's good that the university is finally helping out with those costs.
Graduate assistants work hard, not only completing coursework, but also teaching classes, grading papers and doing research. They don't usually get much credit or compensation. This subsidy, at the very least, shows that it's possible for the university to recognize graduate students' concerns.
It seems that the university is beginning to realize that a graduate student's budget isn't large, and things like health care are critical but expensive. If the university mandates that graduate assistants buy health insurance, it's necessary for the university to help make that possible. Here's to healthy grad students ' may they write their theses well.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the executive editors.
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Even a small health insurance subsidy for graduate students is a good move
