Student Council introduced a glut of new legislation at its meeting last night, including a resolution asking the University to foot the bill for graduate student health insurance and to make now-private course evaluations public and available to curious students on the Web.
Resolutions needed to be introduced last night in order for Council to consider them this semester.
If passed, the resolution on graduate health insurance would urge the administration to pay for graduate student health coverage. Currently, graduate students are required to have insurance, but they pay for it out of their own pockets.
Graduate students receive about $5,000 a year for teaching undergraduate students but some must spend about 15 percent of their earnings on health insurance.
Graduate Arts & Sciences Rep. Rich Pierce, who co-sponsored the resolution, said it would affect Ph.D. students in the College because the College does not offer insurance like some scientific fields of study.
Pierce said the Graduate Council has been trying to get health coverage for graduate students for about two years.
The two main goals of the Graduate Council have been to improve the current health packages and to get insurance paid for by the University.
"We hope that by getting the support of Student Council, the administration will recognize the importance of this problem to both graduate and undergraduate students," Pierce said.
It is important to offer health insurance to graduate students because it attracts the best students, he said, adding that most of the University's peer institutions offer a free health care plan.
The caliber of graduate students also affects undergraduates.
"A high quality of graduate students means that we'll have better TAs and increase the prestige of the academic departments," Pierce said.
Council Vice President for Administration Steve Wright said he supports the resolution for University-funded health insurance.
"Many students at this University are barely able to afford tuition for graduate studies," Wright said. "The administration should step up and provide health insurance for their students."
Council also will ask the University to make course evaluations available to students if it passes another resolution introduced last night.
The resolution, which was signed by many of the school council presidents, calls for the administration to create and maintain an online site so students can see past course evaluations when they are signing up for classes.
Now, the Economics, Religion, Psychology, Biology and Music Departments and the Engineering and Education School, have a joint course evaluation Web site but the information students give is not made public.
"We would like the University to take this one step further and allow students access to student evaluations from previous semesters," Council Chief of Staff Abby Fifer said.
Other resolutions introduced last night include one urging the General Assembly to allocate money to renovate academic buildings and one asking for student input and court-side seating in the planned basketball arena. Council members have been working since last semester to secure student input in developing a new basketball arena.
A resolution calling for the specific renovation of New Cabell, Cocke and Rouss Halls was scheduled for a vote, but the vote was postponed until next week.
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