The Rice Thresher, Vol. 92, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 11, 2005 Page: 3 of 20
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Guest column
THE RICE THRESHER OPINION FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11,2005
Grad students need first-class insurance
A first-class research university
needs to attract the best graduate stu-
dentsfrom around the country and pro-
vide them the means to a reasonable,
modest quality of life. This
includes affordable access
to quality health insurance.
Unfortunately, Rice remains
far from this goal.
Rice requires that all
students show proof of
health insurance. For
most undergraduates, this
is not an issue, because
undergraduates are usu-
ally still eligible for their
parents' health insurance.
However, most graduate
students at Rice have to find their
own coverage, and this often means
buying the "Rice plan" — a plan
selected by the Student Health Insur-
ance Committee that can be charged
through the Cashier's Office along
with our other fees.
The cost of the Rice plan has
risen over the last few years,
and in some cases the increases
have been significant (as much as
181 percent in 2004-'05). Recogniz-
ing the difficulties this presented for
graduate students, in 2002 the Gradu-
ate Studies Office began offering a
$500 subsidy toward the purchase of
the Rice plan for supported graduate
students (those receiving stipends)
in Ph.D. programs.
Thisyear.the Rice plan cost$l,769
for an individual student, the highest
premium in the plan's history, even
though the benefits were reduced to
prevent an even higher increase. To
help offset the increase, the subsidy
was raised to $1,000, making the annu-
al cost of the Rice plan $769. Graduate
student stipends, on which most of us
live exclusively, are roughly between
$13,000 and $23,000 per year.
Marcos
Huerta
Faced with rising premiums and
declining coverage, the Graduate
Student Association formed a task
force last summer to compare how
Rice's graduate student
health insurance cover-
age measures up to other
schools, as well as to the
plan offered to Rice faculty
and staff.
In the end, Rice did
not stack up against other
schools terribly well. While
some universities do not of-
fer any assistance for insur-
ance, several more cover
100 percent of the premium.
For example, two other pri-
vate schools, Brown University and
the University of Pennsylvania, pay
100 percent of premiums that are
almost $2,000, which is much more
generous than Rice's 56 percent
of $1,769.
In addition, Rice makes very
sizable contributions to the health
insurance premiums of Rice faculty
and staff. The university offers four
different plans to its employees of
various cost and quality, but con-
sistently pays about 80 percent of
individual employees' premiums.
Even if a spouse is added, which
greatly increases the premium. Rice
pays 70 percent of the premium cost
for its employees.
It is more than just the cost of the
premium that is creating financial
difficulty for graduate students; it is
the poor coverage of the Rice plan
itself. In addition to a large deduct-
ible and a low cap on prescription
drug coverage, the plan only pays
70 percent of medical expenses. For
students facing serious illnesses or
accidents, 30 percent of their medical
bills can be overwhelming. The task
force heard from one student whose
30 percent share of a car accident was
more than $10,000, and another who
may have to drop out of graduate
school because the cost of treating
a chronic health condition on the
current Rice plan is impossible on a
graduate stipend.
Rice faces many challenges in
providing health care to graduate
students. We are a small-risk pool
with a high claims history and must
contend with a for-profit health-care
industry in a region of high medical
costs. Unfortunately, very little can
be done about these factors.
However, the GSA task force did
make several recommendations de-
signed to improve health insurance
for graduate students. The first is
simply a higher percentage of sub-
sidization, ideally 100 percent. This
would put Rice in the same league as
Brown, Penn and many others—and
eliminate the financial burden of the
premium for graduate students.
Rice must also increase the
benefits of the Rice plan. We cur-
rently have a no-win situation: a
plan that costs too much (relative
to most graduate student incomes),
especially for healthy students, but
that pays too little in the event of
sickness or injury. Both problems
must urgently be addressed.
Overall, Rice is currently in the
middle of the pack compared to other
universities on health insurance for
graduate students. Are we content
to be average?
Marcos Huerta is a physics and as-
tronomy graduate student and GSA
internal vice president. Biochemistry
and cell biology graduate student and
GSA representative Angela Hvitved
contributed to this article. The GSA
task force report is available at
http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~gsa.
Rice Voices
New Iraq faces challenges familiar to U.S.
Imagine that for half a century or
more, your ethnic or racial group was
unable to vote. Imagine that stifled
voices and unheeded concerns fell
on the closed ears of a
dominant group focused
on maintaining the status
quo of political, social and
economic power.
This very scenario is a
reality not far behind us in
the United States; it is even
more recent in Iraq. As we
move into Black History
Month and as the founda-
tions of a new Iraq are being
laid, it is useful to observe
what American history can
tell us about the challenges that are just
now beginning to surface in Iraq.
Within the last few years, a rumor
has been circulating in the black com-
munity that in 2007, blacks will lose the
right to vote because the Voting Rights
Act of 1965 will be up for review. This
rumor gained currency, and angry
petitions were sent nationwide.
Provisions in the Voting Rights Act
are indeed up for review and possible
renewal by Congress in 2007; however,
all blacks are already guaranteed the
right to vote by the 15th Amendment,
ratified in 1870. So blacks will have
nothing to worry about in 2007. Yet the
third Civil War constitutional amend-
ment was not always so sacred.
Despite the high number of blacks
voting between 1865 and 1880 — on
an absolute basis, more blacks were
elected to political office during this
period than at any other time in
American history—by the 1890s, lo-
cal and state authorities had enacted
numerous ways to stop blacks from
voting, including literacy tests, poll
taxes and grandfather clauses.
For almost a century, blacks fought
against this discrimination and dis-
enfranchisement. It was not until the
1965Voting Rights Act that prohibitions
against voting could no longer be em-
ployed in defiance of federal law.
The right to vote is such an
Veronica
Patton
ingrained concept that many never
think of living without it, but the idea
that the government could effectively
silence a significant portion of the
population was a reality in
this country. And in Iraq,
the same thing happened
for 50 years.
In a day destined for
future history books,
Jan. 30 marked Iraq's first
free elections in half a
century. This day heralded
a new era for the troubled
nation, but what do these
elections truly herald?
From the reports of the
first few days following the
elections, it seems as if the struggle
has only just begun. Both Iraqi and
Western officials have noted the politi-
cal divisions in the nation. The Sunnis,
who constitute only 20 percent of the
population but have dominated poli-
tics since the creation of the nation in
1920, nowface an emerging paradigm
shift. The growing power of the major-
ity Shiites in contrast to the increasing
isolation of the Sunnis brings to light
troubling questions about the nature
of the new political order.
Looking at American and Iraqi
histories, one question comes to mind:
How can a state make sure that each
group has a voice and a say in the
shaping of policy? For blacks, even
a constitutional amendment was not
enough. A separate act enforced by the
president and federal officials had to be
set in place, and if the election process
in Florida is any indication, even that
is not enough.
The restructuring of a nation's
government after a turbulent war
— whether it is the Civil War or the
war on Saddam Hussein's regime
— tests the rights of every group in-
volved and forces the establishment of
mechanisms to manage growing sup-
pression, alienation and anger. Nowthe
Sunnis, perhaps realizing the political
effect of their self-imposed isolation,
have called for a say in the drafting of
the constitution and for places in the
national assembly. But will these calls
be heeded after the Sunnis purposely
boycotted the elections? The Shiites
now have the power to block those
who once ruled them. Fairness must
now play into a society rife with the
simmering anger of decades of repres-
sion, fear and war.
When I think of the gains blacks
have made in this country, it makes
me proud. But to think that it took
nearly 100 years to truly be able to
vote makes me worry for the future
of the Iraqi democracy.
Veronica Patton is a Sid Richardson
College senior.
Guest column
For Owl fans, best things
in life should be free
At the men's basketball game
Saturday night, I was standing
in the nosebleed section. I had
arrived at the game 25 minutes
before tip-off, and that
was pretty much the
best seat I could get.
This is far from a
complaint; it was great
seeing so many Rice
students come out
to support the team.
Showing up to a game
is the most powerful
way to support any Rice
team. If you want to do
more, you can help or-
ganize different events
to draw students out to games
by joining an appropriate club or
organization.
But under no circumstances
should a student have to pay money
to display his support of Rice athlet-
ics. I'm taking specific issue here
with the Student Owl Club.
I understand the intentions of
the Student Owl Club: Get stu-
dents personally invested in Rice
athletics so that they care more
deeply while they are students
and also continue to care when
they become alumni. I think that
is an admirable goal.
It quickly becomes less admi-
rable when you realize that to join
this club you have to fork over
$25.1 am not going to argue about
the specific amount, because any
amount is too much. Not to pinch
pennies, but as a student, I already
pay for the athletics program
through my fees and tuition. I am
already financially invested.
Furthermore, I thought I could
show my support by attending
games. But now, unless I wear the
blue "Go Rice Owls" bracelet, I will
forever be branded as a second-rate
supporter of Rice varsity teams.
This would be enough to upset any
student, but especially students
who have gone above and beyond
to show their support for Rice
athletics in the past. Essentially,
by announcing this fee to join, the
Student Owl Club gives me notice
that the sum total of my contribu-
tion of getting other students to
games, and my own presence at
games over the past three years, is
worth less than $25. Ouch.
I am also worried that the
Student Owl Club will deter
students from attending athletic
events in the future. By joining
the Student Owl Club, you gain
Derrick
Matthews
access to all sorts of good things,
like the ability to travel and prior-
ity tickets. And I have to assume
that in an attempt to attract more
members, these perks
will expand over time.
But what if you naively
thought that you could
support Rice athletics
with your attendance
and not your wallet? You
are suddenly doomed to
experience the fate of a
second-class fan.
While in the real
world it may be accept-
able for those who have
money to get ridiculous
access to better seats and better
games, I cannot approve of that
at Rice. There is a reason we all
pay the same amount for athletics,
and it is unfair to demand more.
Students who are not members of
the Student Owl Club will quickly
tire of being treated differently,
and we will see the extinction of
a large fan base known as the vast
majority of the student body.
Furthermore, the Student Owl
Club is simply the student version
of the Owl Club. I bring this up
because it is not an independent
student organization. This alone
does not make the Student Owl
Club evil, but it is important to
point out that it is not entirely
student-driven. Even if students
help out with it now, it will not
take long for the effectiveness of
an organization meant to change
student attitudes and behaviors
to fail if it is not truly in the hands
of students. There is a fine but
important line of working with the
Owl Club and working for it.
Students who cannot or do
not want to give $25 should not
be treated as second-class fans,
especially considering that every
Rice student is necessarily already
a financial contributor to Rice ath-
letics. There will be plenty of time
to show our financial support of
the university through donations
to whatever program we think is
deserving of our money after we
graduate. But until then, I would
urge everyone to remember that
the appropriate way for students to
show support toward Rice athlet-
ics is by attending games, not by
opening their checkbooks.
Derrick Matthews is a Will Rice
College senior and Student Associa-
tion president.
Lindsey Gilbert & Jonathan Yardley
Editors in Chief
NEWS
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PHOTOGRAPHY
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COPY
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Cameron Day. Editor
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Gilbert, Lindsey & Yardley, Jonathan. The Rice Thresher, Vol. 92, No. 18, Ed. 1 Friday, February 11, 2005, newspaper, February 11, 2005; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth443065/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.