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Faculty Shows Support For Graduate Students Following Loss of Subsidies

Rebecca Smith
/
KBIA

Updated 8/21/15 at 12:40 p.m.

The University has reinstated previously promised health insurance subsidies for graduate students.

 

Original Post:

University of Missouri- Columbia graduate students are considering walking out of classes next week, after finding out the universitywould stop providing health insurance subsidies. And some departments across campus are standing with those students.

Credit Department of English Website / University of Missouri
/
University of Missouri
Bill Kerwin

It wasn’t just graduate students who were shocked by the announcement last Friday – which came just 14 hours before health insurance coverage lapsed.

Bill Kerwin is the director of graduate studies for the English Department. He said he was driving back to MU when he received the email.

“This is the single most disparaging event in my 18 years at the University of Missouri. It’s a betrayal of some of the University's core values and it's a continuation of disregard for the core educational mission of the university,” Kerwin said.

Kerwin said he began to receive feedback from students and just days later the leadership of the department – himself, the Department chair and the director of graduate admissions for English – released a statement of support for their graduate students.

While Kerwin said all of the faculty he has spoken with is in support of the graduate students, the English department does not plan to take an official all-faculty vote on the matter until next week.

The English Department stand strongly behind the graduate students' efforts to regain health insurance coverage. We will impose no sanctions on those who choose to participate in a walkout next Wednesday. We urge the university to find a solution to this crisis, in the short-term and the long

Other departments across campus - the Classics and Journalism graduate departments - have issued formal public statements of support on their websites. These departments have said there will be no action taken against students who participate in the walkout next Wednesday.

But graduate students are reporting  that more than 15 departments have expressed support through emails to students.

Kerwin says he supports the graduate students because they are essential to the mission of the university.

“We couldn’t do our research without them especially in the sciences. We couldn’t do our teaching without them especially in the humanities,” Kerwin said. “They are central to serving undergraduates. They’re central to serving the research mission of the university.”

The University has said it intends to issue a one-time fellowship to graduate students to help offset costs.

Rebecca Smith is an award-winning reporter and producer for the KBIA Health & Wealth Desk. Born and raised outside of Rolla, Missouri, she has a passion for diving into often overlooked issues that affect the rural populations of her state – especially stories that broaden people’s perception of “rural” life.
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