One down…
Dec 13th 2005WallabyGeneral & nerd alert
“No openings right now. Sorry.”
And the other one I really wanted could be a couple weeks until I hear back, if he’s waiting for funding before he knows whether to say no or not (my advisor’s suggestion on the reason for that delay).
Blah.
Edit:
On the bright side, our university health insurance now covers gender reassignment surgery. In *completely* unrelated news, there’s talk of requiring all students to sign up for coverage whether they’re independently insured or not, in an effort to bring the costs down — currently $2k per year.
2 Responses to “One down…”
Ed Darrell on 14 Dec 2005 at 9:18 pm #
Gender reassignment surgery? Well, for those born genetically female, but with male apparatus, or vice-versa, why shouldn’t it be covered? I presume your plan covers correction of a deviated septum, right?
Were you cheering, or jeering?
Wallaby on 15 Dec 2005 at 6:38 pm #
I said it was a bright side, didn’t I? I’m sure that it would be unpleasant to be unable to pay for such an operation.
I’m less sure that it’s reasonable to expect — indeed, to require — the entire student body to chip in for the costs. I don’t imagine that the student in question is likely to publicize the matter, so people get to chip in unknowingly. Then there’s the problem that it’s a pre-existing condition which isn’t life-threatening, and that the surgery in question is pretty much cosmetic. (Correction of a deviated septum does provide benefits beyond the psychological.) (I sure hope you’ve made sure that your own insurance policy charges you extra to cover statistically rare procedures with purely mental benefits. Or is breast augmentation supposed to be considered a human right?)
The “student” health insurance (sold to undergrads) is $2k; the only health insurance provided to graduate students costs the university $3k/year. This is only for students themselves; spouses/partners and kids are extra. Thankfully, it *is* the university that pays it, rather than the students, at least for “employed” students (teaching, research assistants, etc.).
So of course it was nice to hear that a university plagued by budget problems will also get to bear the costs of below-the-belt plastic surgery for a few unfortunate graduate students. If they hadn’t had that to spend the money on, they might’ve gotten around to, I dunno, repairing the elevator in the chemistry building so that it doesn’t break down twice a week.