Financial fruits of our labor

This week, the Graduate and Professional Student Council announced that Lewis Siegel, dean of the Graduate School, has committed to providing funding for health insurance for all Ph.D. students, beginning next year. This represents one milestone in a longer road for GPSC, which has worked on health insurance issues in a number of ways, from lobbying for such funding to working on the search for the best plan each year to communicating health information to students to help bring down costs.

This by no means represents the culmination of GPSC's work on the issue. First of all, the Graduate School has taken the lead in helping doctoral students, but students in professional school and those pursuing masters degrees still have to foot their own bills, and GPSC will continue to work to help these students in every way possible.

GPSC has worked with the Graduate School on other issues as well. In response to the Women's Initiative and GPSC's lobbying efforts on behalf of student parents, the graduate school set aside more than $100,000 each year to subsidize childcare for Ph.D. students with children. Two years ago, the Children's Campus set aside 30 spaces for the children of graduate and professional students.

GPSC has also lobbied for initiatives that promote better mentoring for graduate and professional students. In response, the Graduate School established an award two years ago for faculty mentors nominated by graduate students. The Duke Alumni Association is now working closely with GPSC on lobbying for improved career services and a mentoring network.

At Monday's meeting, the GPSC General Assembly voted to increase the graduate student fee by $2.75 a semester after a survey of graduate and professional students indicated that a majority supported an increase in GPSC funding. This additional money will allow GPSC to maintain its current level of activity and support for graduate and professional students.

That activity includes the many social events that students see GPSC organize (whether they attend or not!), the numerous student group events that GPSC helps fund and the improved communication with students through GPSCNews. It also includes work on the many issues that graduate and professional students face. GPSC holds discussions each year with groups of students-dual-degree, LGBT, international, parents and minorities-to discuss issues that should be brought to the attention of the Duke administration. GPSC puts students on University committees that help to make important decisions at Duke on everything from academic issues to bike lanes. These students have a strong voice in almost all decision-making.

The new fee will allow GPSC to continue or perhaps even increase its current level of support for student groups. The increase in group funding allocated by GPSC over the last few years has not only made a big difference to student group activity and the graduate student community at Duke, but it has also helped GPSC to connect with students more than ever before. GPSC's increased activity has led to more respect and bargaining power on campus. Last year, this was apparent in a doubling of the graduate and professional student representation on the Board of Trustees and a tripling of our representation on the Duke Alumni Association Board. This year has seen revived discussion of a graduate and professional student center, which would make a difference for the increasingly active graduate and professional student groups.

GPSC funds also pay for dues to the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students, which works with Congress on issues pertaining to students including laws affecting loan debt, taxes on graduate student stipends, health insurance and more. (See www.nagps2.org for details.) In addition, NAGPS addresses everything from diversity to career to international student concerns. I certainly hope that NAGPS is as successful in its pursuits as GPSC has been over the past few years.