So this has been one of my most prolonged silences on satoroams; the reasons for absence are many and not worth listing here. I think the hefty snow, swirling at high speeds to only gently land on the ground has stirred me out of this writing lull.
It is now storming hard out, its effect at once being one of intensity, the wind howling, bordering on an angry tone, yet the blanket of white, the empty streets ushers in a peaceful silence. This duality captures what I feel about the administration’s decision to provide full health insurance for all PhD Students funded with stipends in the Social Science division, which may also be soon adopted by the humanities division. I am happy that student protest has had an effect, yet not all that happy (one may say peeved) at how we were notified (we were not) and how a solution was found only for future students, leaving current ones out in the cold, bearing the brunt of high costs, surely only to go one way: up.
Last fall I help start SOSHI knowing that some noise, press, and dialogue might change the U of C’s problematic policy of giving all the biological and physical science PhD students health insurance (which they can do because those dept have larger budgets thanks ot US gov grants) while basically turning a blind eye to the SS, Humanities, and Divinity school students.
With sky rocketing rates and general student ignorance about this policy, we provided some information, made some noise, and eventually the administration and board of trustees noticed although they basically refused to dialogue with us, in fact, for the past months they have told us that the administration was doing nothing to address this problem. And in the last few days, while we were hearing news of this new health insurance proposal, other administrators acted as if this was not happening. I find this entirely perplexing unless they woke up to this problem last week, and in one day drafted a proposal that was agreed to by the division deans the next day. In other words, highly unlikely.
On the one hand, this news is a clear victory. Future U of C Social Science PhD students who are funded won’t have to worry that by the time they finish their tenure at U of C they will be paying the price of a small Eastern European (or now Chinese) car for health insurance. On the other hand, their policy sends a message that current students don’t matter; they are left to entirely fend for themselves, including future unfunded students. Why not find a solution that positively impacts the entire U of C community? Why not provide subsidies for current students (or those in the first three-four years of the program); Why not cap the rate of increase so at least student can realistically know their costs? There are many