Ohio State is improving funded graduate student benefits

COLUMBUS -- The Ohio State University will make several important improvements to compensation and the health care subsidy for its graduate associates, fellows and trainees during the next two academic years, Interim Executive Vice President and Provost Barbara R. Snyder said Friday (4/9) in outlining revisions to the Council of Graduate Students.

Among the improvements, the minimum monthly stipend for graduate associates will increase to $1,000, and the university subsidization for funded graduate students covered by the Student Health Insurance Plan will increase to 64 percent in the 2004-05 academic year and to 75 percent the following year. Ohio State’s current minimum stipend is $900 a month, and the health care subsidy is 42 percent.

Snyder said the improvements will help Ohio State to recruit graduate students and to create a positive work-life environment for current students.

“If Ohio State wants to attract and retain the best and brightest graduate students, then we must create a supportive environment for them and demonstrate that we value their teaching, research and administrative roles,” Snyder said. “Increasing the minimum stipend and health care subsidies are important ways we can do this.”

For the first time, the university also plans to offer a health care subsidy for dependent spouses and children of graduate associates, fellows and trainees covered by the student plan. The subsidy rate for dependents will be 25 percent for the 2005 academic year, and will increase to 50 percent the following year. Additionally, premiums will be eligible for pre-tax deductions, helping stipends go further in meeting students’ monthly expenses. Nearly three-fourths of Ohio State graduate associates are enrolled in the student health plan, but that figure is expected to grow, said Larry M. Lewellen, associate vice president for human resources.

The increases in graduate benefits were recommendations of the Graduate Quality of University Experience (G-QUE) report, an extensive survey of graduate student issues at Ohio State to determine ways the university could improve graduate life. The report was published in winter 2002. The increases also are more in line with funded graduate student benefits at other institutions with which the university compares itself.

“Raising the minimum stipend and reducing health insurance costs will improve the quality of life for graduate associates, trainees and fellows. This is sure to have a beneficial effect for the institution as a whole, and is critical to our ability to achieve the objectives of the Academic Plan,” said Susan L. Huntington, dean of the Graduate School.

Jamie Depelteau, president of the Council of Graduate Students, said the council has worked closely with the university to implement the recommendations of the report.

“We felt that it was important to formally reconfirm our support for funded graduate students, and to ask the university to take action,” Depelteau said. “Former (Council) President Briggs Cormier had advocated for these changes since the report was first published, and we are delighted the university has been so responsive.”

Lewellen said Ohio State recruits in an extremely competitive environment.

“These latest benefits were driven in large part by the deans’ desire to attract the highest caliber of graduate students,” Lewellen said. “There was also consensus that the improvements were the right thing for the university to do.”