Rice University’s Student Newspaper — Since 1916

Monday, May 06, 2024 — Houston, TX

Eileen Meyer


NEWS 4/9/09 7:00pm

Inadequate health plan needs greater improvements

Ed. note: This article has been changed from the printed version.In a 2008 study of graduate students on the Rice-subsidized health plan, 97 percent of over 400 respondents were unhappy with the plan coverage and cost. Indeed, a comparison of the plan with other similarly-sized schools in the top 50 US News and World Report rankings shows that our current plan is well behind our competition in almost every way, such as co-pay percentage and out-of-pocket maximum.


NEWS 10/2/08 7:00pm

Graduate student concerns omitted from hurricane plan

While I am grateful that all faculty, staff and students pulled through the recent storm without injury, I must comment on the disquieting attitude of the administration both before and just after what remains one of the worst natural disasters in Texas history - an attitude that has severely injured the relationship between the administration and graduate students.As I have spent four years as an undergraduate at Rice, followed by several more as a graduate student, I can personally attest to a different standard of treatment of undergraduate versus graduate students. Most recently, even as undergraduates and parents were being soothed and reassured in the face of the hurricane, faculty and graduate students were told they were "nonessential" personnel, and were banned from campus unless they were in Rice housing.