Technician
friday november
11 2011
Raleigh, North Carolina
technicianonline.com
Senates push for parental leave
Honoring the fallen
Student and faculty senates help support parental leave policy for graduate students. Elise Heglar Deputy News Editor
John Joyner/Technician
Sophomore in German studies Kyle Backhus guards the Memorial Bell Tower late Thursday night. The annual vigil is held in memory of those who have served in the military, starting at 8 p.m. and running overnight until the morning of Veteran’s Day.
Faculty and student senate are working together to help graduate students receive parental leave benefits. Montse Fuentes, the department head for statistics, headed up the initiative when she discovered that graduate students who take time off after having a child are liable to lose any financial benefits they receive. This includes health insurance offered to full-time students. “I had a graduate student who was teaching and had to have a C-section when she had her baby. She was going to lose her financial support and insurance and that is a problem for a lot of people,” Fuentes said. The plan that is currently being pitched is modeled after UNCChapel Hill’s plan for parental leave for graduate students. The plan has already received unanimous support from the student and faculty senates and Fuentes hopes to gain similar support from the Provost. A meeting is being held on Tuesday night to officially vote on the implementation of the plan. “Hopefully he [the Provost] sees the relevance of having that policy,” Fuentes said. Fuentes said having parental leave available for graduate students is important because it allows people who have families to continue their education without being concerned about additional financial or grade issues. In addition to the six weeks of leave that the plan allots for paternal leave, a one-semester extension for all coursework would be allowed. “It’s important that we are able to help students,” Fuentes said. Marcia Gumpertz, assistant vice
Provost for faculty and staff diversity, has also been working on the project. She said that having time off with a new child in the house is something that every new parent is entitled to. “For students who have a new child in the family it’s a huge event and very difficult to be in school with a new baby and not take time off,” Gumpertz. According to Gumpertz, the parental leave plan has been in the works for a couple of years. Several student organizations have expressed support of the program but it was the advanced scholars program that really pushed for it to happen. “The advanced scholars brought attention to department heads and really got it some attention,” Gumpertz said. There is not any official data recorded for the number of graduate students who would benefit from the implementation of this policy, but Gumpertz says that it is a significant amount. “A lot of our graduate students are having families and need that time off,” Gumpertz said. Gumpertz said that there has been a lot of positive support for the program so far. “Most people have been very supportive. The only reservation is people wondering if they have a graduate student work in a lab, how they would compensate for that work. But that is similar to normal paternity leave,” Gumpertz said. Jim Biglin, a senior in mechanical engineering, said that this policy would give students a chance to have the best of both worlds with school and family life. “It’s good because it gives more people an opportunity to further their career. Some people might feel held back with having a kid but this policy helps with that,” Biglin said. Gumpertz and Fuentes are hopeful that the policy will be put in place after Tuesday’s meeting. “This is something that would remove barriers for female and male graduate students who have families,” Gumpertz said.
insidetechnician
Dining offers a sneak-peak to Thanksgiving Campus dining halls served students traditional Thanksgiving goods Thursday night.
said University Dining came up with a predicted number of students who would attend, and had dining hall cooks make food based on that number. “They give us a number and we deAnna Riley cide how much food to make. We usuStaff Writer ally prepare as needed so everything is The dining halls on campus were as fresh as possible,” Heath said. To be ready at 5 p.m. for the influx of packed with students Thursday evening for the annual Thanksgiving din- students, Heath added that the cooks ner sponsored by University Dining. typically begin food preparation at Case, Clark and Fountain Din- about 12 p.m. He said the dining hall ing halls provided students with a normally feeds 250 students throughplethora of traditional Thanksgiving out the dinner rush, but expects approximately 300 favorites, includfor the Thanksgiving carved turkey, ing dinner. mashed potatoes While most of and gravy, stuffing the foods remain and pumpkin pie. t he sa me f rom Every year, Uniyear to year, Heath ve r s it y D i n i ng Josh Heath, head cook at said the cooks will funds the dinner Case Dining Hall always add somethat, according to thing new or difJosh Heath, the lead cook at Case Dining Hall, brings ferent. This year, the menu included students together for a hot, fresh meal everything from the traditional turkey and a chance to take a break from hec- and dressing to vegan and vegetarian options like ziti with roasted peppers tic end-of-semester work. Heath said the Thanksgiving dinner and butternut squash risotto. For the final course of the meal, stuusually has good student turnout and is enjoyable for him because he gets dents had their choice of carrot cake, the opportunity to give dinners an “at pumpkin pie or pecan pie. They did have the option though, Heath said, to home” experience. “We do this and we make the tra- have all three if they desired. In addition to the annual Thanksditional foods because we want them to feel at home. Some students don’t giving dinner, University Dining also get to go home for the holiday,” Heath sponsors a holiday feast in December that gives students yet another classaid. In preparation for the dinner, Heath sic meal.
Spotted in the Brickyard See page 5.
“Some students don’t get to go home for the holiday.”
Self-expressed through portraits
State students and 160 others exhibit their artwork at the North Carolina Museum of Art. See page 6. Sandra edwards/Technician
Hannah Freyman, a freshman in First Year College, nabs some cranberry sauce at Case Dining Hall’s annual Thanksgiving dinner. Freyman is a member of the NCSU swim team and the Thanksgiving dinner was much needed after a hard practice.
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