Graduate Student Senate passes resolution to increase health care subsidy for graduate students

If the subsidies were raised to the average of 89 percent, as the resolution suggests, it would cost the university around $2.69 million.

[dropcap txtcolor="#234a83" style="dropcap1"]O[/dropcap]hio University Graduate Student Senate passed a resolution Tuesday to increase the university’s health care subsidy for graduate students.Currently, the university only subsidizes four percent of the cost of university health insurance for graduate students with appointments. According to the Graduate Appointment Information and Policies, appointments are the various positions that graduate students can hold, such as teaching assistant, research assistant, graduate assistant or resident assistant.The amount of financial support for health insurance is determined by these appointments. This subsidy is lower than the subsidies of other organizations, Maria Funcheon, the primary sponsor of the resolution, said.“This resolution is asking the university administration to recognize the four percent subsidy currently provided by the university for health insurance is lower than the average of peer institutions, which is currently 89 percent,” she said.If the subsidies were raised to the average of 89 percent, as the resolution suggests, it would cost the university around $2.69 million. After half an hour of discussion, the resolution was passed unanimously.GSS also passed a resolution allocating funds for the free screening — and free popcorn — of the Black Panther movie that occurred last week. This resolution was voted on during this meeting because of the gap between GSS meetings, said Alec Koondel, Vice President of Finance and the primary sponsor of the resolution.In addition, GSS passed resolutions allocating funds to Women in Sports and the Ohio History Graduate Association Conference.