Discontinuity
Writes grad student Anthony Ludlam in today’s Daily of his experience with GradCare administrative snafus, “my insurance has been ‘dropped’ without warning no less than three times, without my prior knowledge or consent.” This doesn’t at all square with our experience. Our coverage has been dropped about ten times, sometimes mid-semester.
Also, the Washington Post’s Style section shamelessly chases A2 trends by listing “homemade marshmallows” as one of its”in” things for 2004. Don’t they know that it’s all about Old Country Buffet pudding now?
This gentleman states that he “signed some papers,” presumably the insurance contract, and I imagine AAIO did too. Isn’t this legally considered a mutually binding contract? Wouldn’t the failure of either party to honor its end of the bargain be considered a breach of contract? If I had put in the hours and fulfilled my end of it, I would be so irate at this shoddy if not illegal treatment that I’d relentlessly go up the ladder till I could talk to someone who could actually provide some answers–and would let the media know as well, with the “squeaky-wheel” idea in mind. I wonder if there is a student legal services resource on campus–this is ridiculous. And they’re playing a dangerous game…what if, God forbid, a delay in treatment causes a serious adverse health reaction in someone–someone who doesn’t get necessary medication, say–who then files suit? It could get ugly for them. Who runs GradCare, by the way?
posted by Laura on January 6th, 2004 at 2:11 am eWell, in my case, the coverage always turned out to be retroactive - the doctor’s appointment would be covered when the mess got straightened out, several phone calls or visits to the department secretary later. It’s kind of embarrassing to be told that you don’t have any insurance all the time, though. One time I had a collection agency sent after me during one of the more complicated mixups. Another time I had to delay antibiotics for an infected wisdom tooth because I wasn’t sure that I’d ever be reimbursed.
posted by ann arbor is overrated on January 6th, 2004 at 2:21 am eStudent legal services won’t represent a student against the University…
It sounds like gradcare has really gone downhill. I never had any problem. Even when I was dissertating (not enrolled) and had stomach pains they gave me two ultrasounds in one day and unquestioningly picked up a middle-of-the-night emergency room visit (Complete with a vicodin prescription! Bonus! All cost me $20). I had a corneal ulcer taken care of, lots of asthma medication ($5 copay; now I pay about $70/month), custom-molded orthotics for running — lots of stuff that my current plan doesn’t cover without major hassles.
On the other hand, when I first got to grad school, instead of my stipend check, they accidentally gave me a check for $5K. When I tried to return it, the woman in student accounts said, “not my problem.” So, I gave it to our department administrator. Then, they direct-deposited another during the X-mas holidays, which I also returned. Then, a third. Also returned. Finally, at the end of the year, I got a tuition bill with no explanation for $15K. When I called, they casually said, “Oh, yes, we gave you $15,000, and we need it back now. We accept checks.” It finally got straightened out, but I’d love to know who I could sue to get that 2000 hours back… Weirdly, I heard I wasn’t the only one this happened to during the switch to the Wolverine system.
posted by Anna on January 6th, 2004 at 10:40 am eHere is Columbus, there are a couple grizzled, sixties radicals who sue the University as a sort of a hobby. Aren’t there any out there who will take grad student cases pro bono.
posted by Lucky Jackson on January 6th, 2004 at 12:56 pm eSpeaking of grad students, do those grad students among you feel bitter about the fact that yo0u do all the teaching and make all the money for the university. I have a theory that most of the coprorate practices that are subverting America, e.g. prematemps, outsourcing, etc., were actually pioneered by research universities, and that, rather than speaking of the corporatization of the academy, we should talk about the academication of corporate America.
Well, I’m a fairly recent grad/grad student. No, I don’t feel bitter about making the university money. They gave me a Ph.D. for free plus a stipend and health insurance for five years. It’s not like the university is turning a huge profit. Nobody in academia is getting rich, * and few are being paid what they could be making in the private sector. But there are a lot of intangible benefits, so you make some trade-offs. I got offered a job in private industry last year and would have been making double what I make now. There are reasons people don’t take those jobs.
*The pres is making a nice salary, but that’s what the market will bear, not true for almost everyone else
posted by Anna on January 6th, 2004 at 1:26 pm eLloyd Carr does okay, too, I think, Anna.
posted by Boris on January 6th, 2004 at 2:00 pm eYeah, the football program pays for itself (and all the other athletics).
posted by Anna on January 6th, 2004 at 2:13 pm eLloyd Carr is also startlingly generous with his own money, on behalf of worthy projects including women’s sports.
posted by Larry Kestenbaum on January 6th, 2004 at 3:32 pm eWhy does Lloyd Carr draw a salary? If athletes are supposed to play for free, why can’t the coaches coach for free? (
posted by Lucky Jackson on January 6th, 2004 at 8:33 pm eAnd since undergrads pay to come to school here, maybe I should pay to teach them.
posted by Anna on January 6th, 2004 at 8:37 pm eSomething to keep in mind if this year’s budget cuts aren’t enough . . .
posted by Nick on January 6th, 2004 at 8:49 pm eRegarding AAIO’s comment @ a collection agency–if a collection agency gets involved, it’s possible there’s a negative mark on the person’s credit report. And if that’s the case, it’s conceivable that one could miss out on the perfect house while trying (good luck) to get that mark removed from the credit report–and such marks usually stay there for 7 years, I believe. I think this health insurance problem is a serious problem with a lot of dangers.
posted by Laura on January 6th, 2004 at 9:44 pm eSpeaking of the Daily…. Anyone want to make a wager as to how long it takes before a conscientious Strayerite takes this headline
posted by Boris on January 7th, 2004 at 11:13 am eand runs with it. It’s “clearly” racist.
“yo0u do all the teaching and make all the money”
As far as I can tell, the overwhelming majority of teaching in the Planning department is done by faculty. (Paul can provide his opinion on this?) In the computer science department, as an undergrad, I had faculty instructors for every single class (save one, where the faculty instructor was denied tenure mid-semester and left). Some GSIs did a lot of lab work, but the faculty tended to have more in-class hours than the GSIs, and also seemed to have generous office hours. Despite having nothing else in common, the Planning and CS departments at Michigan are similar in that every faculty member teaches and almost every course is taught by faculty. Maybe my experience has been an outlier, though, and somebody can provide a differing point of view.
I don’t know enough about the research situation in the Planning department yet to say anything there, but I hardly think “grad students do all of the work and provide all of the university’s income” is a universal truism. From my limited Ivy League observations, I’d say Michigan’s faculty does about as much research and much much more teaching per capita. And, as Anna says, teaching gets you free tuition and a decent stipend–as far as I can tell, grad students seem to be falling over each other to be GSI’s.
posted by Murph on January 7th, 2004 at 11:55 am eDenied tenure mid-semester and left? That is very bizarre. There must be much, much, much more to that story.
Murph is pretty much right. We don’t do as much teaching here, in that the classes are smaller, and we do about as much research. The small number we teach is somewhat misleading, though — teaching is a bit different and the students have different expectations about how much personal attention they’ll get (to the point of calling me at home sometimes…), so I’d say that, although we have a smaller courseload, we have about as much time with the students — especially since we don’t have a professional advising staff. Oh, another factor in teaching load is that at lots of places (including UM) you can “buy out” some of your teaching time with grants. Here that is not allowed for anyone (that’s great for the junior faculty, but bad for the senior faculty).
Also, the expectations about committee service are much greater here, and I think at most of the Ivies. The faculty run the show; and there is a very small professional administration. It’s good, but it’s a lot of work. You get asked to be on an especially large number of committees if you’re a woman or a minority, since they like having representation on cmts and there aren’t many of either on the tenure track. Anyway, this is a long way of saying that I think you end up with about the same amount of work as a faculty member in the Ivies or at Michigan. More than as a grad student, I can attest.
As an undergrad at Michigan, all of my courses were taught by faculty, but many were huge lectures. Sections were taught by grad students, and mostly they answered questions about the lectures or administered quizzes, etc. The system was fine with me — I liked seeing more accomplished people giving lectures and speaking as a faculty member, I think grad students do just as good a job at running sections as I do (and designing a course is much more work than most grad students realize — lots more — so don’t think by any stretch of the imagination grad students teach more than faculty, even in cases where they have lots of face time with the students). The one exception was when I took Logic in the Philosphy Dept — that was taught by a grad student but was easily the best class I ever took (undergrad or grad!).
The grad students here do less work because we are discouraged from having discussion sections (the school sees them as expensive and a waste of time). They always complain that they aren’t getting ENOUGH teaching experience to be competitive on the job market (though having been on search committees, I can tell you that most places couldn’t care less about your teaching experience. They should just relax and enjoy, or better yet, get another paper out).
posted by Anna on January 7th, 2004 at 1:06 pm eAnna, thanks for the interesting post. I’m on the job market now in history (I’ll defend in July or August) and I’ve wondered whether my relative lack of teaching experience as a grad student would be a strike against me (though I do have an edited volume out and an article under review). I suppose it depends on the type of school (research institute or liberal arts college) and the discipline as well. (You’re in the sciences, right?)
posted by Boris on January 7th, 2004 at 3:06 pm eI am in the sciences (well, I straddle social and natural science)…. I think you’re in good shape, anyway, though. I’ve had plenty of friends who’ve gotten jobs out of polysci or history programs with little teaching experience. It’s a bonus if you’ve done some, but nobody expects you to have done a LOT (and at Michigan you do a lot by a lot of standards, even if you don’t do a lot by Michigan standards). Pubs always trump everything else, I think in every field. Does depend, to some degree on liberal arts versus research, but I don’t think as much as you might think. The ivies have more of a liberal-arts attitude toward teaching, and we’re no stricter about the amount of teaching experience than Michigan.
posted by Anna on January 7th, 2004 at 3:29 pm eOh, and I should add: whatever fellowship got you out of all that teaching probably makes up in prestige for any lack of teaching experience.
posted by Anna on January 7th, 2004 at 3:42 pm e