Recently, The Observer and Scholastic have reported that Notre Dame is striving to become one of the premier teaching and research universities in the United States. But for all the rhetoric concerning the University's rise to the top, Notre Dame still falls short of the mark in their goal to become an elite institution. By failing to provide basic needs to a group that will ultimately be responsible for a large part of the University's success, it is condemning itself to failure.

Graduate students at Notre Dame account for a large portion of the academic teaching, research and administrative responsibilities that will bring Notre Dame the recognition it desires to achieve. Yet, these same graduate students, who, if they suddenly disappeared from the campus, would bring the University to a grinding halt, are not offered a reasonable insurance policy with the benefits necessary for an individual or family to cover common illnesses.

There are approximately 1,500 graduate students on this campus, many with families to support, and 900 of those use the non-subsidized insurance policy the University offers for about $600 an academic year (if you have no other policy you must take the one the University offers). For the University to subsidize the price of benefits in addition to what graduate students currently pay for the plan it would $300 per student — roughly $270,000.

If Notre Dame is to be competitive with schools like Brown, whose graduate student union recently announced that the entire cost of graduate student health insurance will be subsidized, or Cornell, who pays for the entire cost of all full-time graduate students' health insurance, they must find a way to subsidize an insurance plan for their graduate students.

A mentor of mine used to say, "Your walk talks and your talk talks, but your walk talks louder than your talk talks." The recent "talk" of the University has been of progress, but its "walk" has given graduate students and those wishing to see the University succeed a collective slap in the face.

Paul J. Patterson

graduate student

South Bend

Jan. 21

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