In a University-wide memo, Texas A&M President Robert M. Gates announcedWednesday that graduate students enrolled in a University health care plan will see increased compensation by $145.60 per month for the 2004 fiscal year.
The compensation will cost the University $3 million. For graduate students who are single, the increased compensation will cover their monthly premium. Those married with children can expect health care premiums to jump from $108.80 per month up to $281.07, an estimated percent increase of 258.
Graduate Student Council President Josh Peschel said in an earlier interview with The Battalion that the GSC recommended that the University provide full coverage for all health insurance premiums. It also suggested the option of offsetting some of the increase with a pay raise for graduate assistants.
Andreas Mershin, a graduate student in the Department of Physics, said in a previous interview that he and his colleagues plan on collecting signatures on a letter asking A&M’s administration for greater financial support for graduate students.
Chris Lavergne, a graduate assistant in the Department of Agricultural Education, said he welcomes the extra compensation. Lavergne, married with two children, is from Kansas State University, where he said the multi-billion dollar budget deficit hit Kansas hard, too.
“Everybody is hurting,” he said. “We knew it was going to be tough to come to grad school. It’s an investment. Ten years down the line I’m going to have my graduate degree from Texas A&M, and the last thing on my mind is going to be that I had to pay an increase in health insurance.”
Lavergne said he was impressed that the University appropriated $3 million so quickly in such a short amount of time.
Christa Catchings, another graduate in the Department of Agricultural Education, said the current health insurance increases will be hardest on doctoral students.