Graduate student leaders are calling for the creation of a fund that would offer benefits equivalent to maternity and paternity leave for graduate assistants, replacing a procedure students worry could endanger their academic careers.
As it is, graduate assistants expecting children can apply for a leave of absence of up to two semesters — granted only at supervisors’ discretion — but students say taking this option could cost them funding and university health insurance, endanger their student loan deferrals and jeopardize their doctoral completions.
The Graduate Student Government passed a resolution Friday supporting a Childbirth Accommodation Fund to provide graduate assistants with paid leave, but debate remains on how the plan could be funded.
“A lot of the likelihood of something happening with this resolution depends on how much graduate students express their desires for it,” said Michael Scholten, the resolution’s author. “In theory, we [graduate assistants] can get fired if we take leave off for childbirth.”
At the GSG’s meeting Friday, many students seemed intent on helping those balancing families with academics and doctoral completion. However, several spoke against a tuition increase or fees to support a new leave fund, instead hoping the funding could come from other sources.
“I’d be very hesitant to ask for an increase in student fees to fund the fund. Not that I don’t think it’s a good thing, but there are so many students that would be excluded from it,” said GSG President Anupama Kothari, who had a child while both her and her spouse worked as graduate assistants. “Also, I think the university should be taking the lead on something like this.”
According to the GSG resolution, three of the university’s five peer institutions already provide six weeks of paid maternity leave. The issue has so far remained gender neutral, but several graduate students have personally expressed a higher priority to maternity leave.
“I definitely am more sympathetic to maternal leave than family leave. Intellectually, I believe family is important as well,” said Scholten, who last year took a week and a half off after the birth of his child with departmental permission.
Scholten said issues such as the ones covered in the resolution could also be an argument for the unionization of graduate assistants, a debate that has raged at the university for years. He said he plans to garner more support for the resolution to take it to the University Senate.
Because the university does not categorize graduate assistants as employees, they are not assured any type of maternity or paternity benefits.
Senior staff writer Derby Cox contributed to this report.
mquijada@umdbk.com
