Grad students not told of updates

I was recently informed of the changes to the graduate student mandatory health insurance program.

Unfortunately, rather than hearing about it in an e-mail from the graduate school, I was notified via an article in Flagpole. This is truly unacceptable.

I understand the budget needs facing the University as a whole, but it is disrespectful to us to not properly notify us of the changes.

For my family, the per person maximum increasing from $2,500 to $10,000 out of pocket is a significant change. At this point, having to pay $10,000 for a medical emergency would likely mean we were no longer able to continue in our graduate programs.

That represents an undue burden on graduate students that already do not bring home a significant amount of money.

Further, this is compounded by the fact that we are still paying the same premiums each semester with a great difference in the coverage.

I hope that communication will be clear to graduate students in the future with such a major financial change to insurance policies without proper notice.

Because the changes are so great, it seems that in the future, students should be notified with enough time to shop for policies outside the university that could possibly be priced more competitively with greater coverage.

Again, the fact I heard about this from a local news magazine, and not from the University first hand, makes it seems as if the graduate school was trying to slide this by without the students noticing.

This is not the kind of behavior I want to see from a university that emphasizes honesty and integrity in its mission, only to disregard it when it is convenient for them.

Deanna Cozart
Grad Student, Forsyth
Workforce Education

Recent changes to UGAKey.com

We would like to let all University students know of a few recent updates to UGAKey.com, the online database of course grade distributions dating back to 1999.

UGAKey.com includes syllabi for over 4000 classes, with another 2000 forthcoming before the end of drop/add, and now has better support for the Safari browser.

UGAKey.com includes class grades up to Spring 2009 for most course sections and professors, meaning you can see and use 10 years worth of grades on UGAKey.com.

As you decide on classes during fall drop/add and spring registration, don’t get caught unprepared — use UGAKey.com.

If you have any problems accessing the grade data, please e-mail us at contact@ugakey.com.

Chris M. Lindsey, Noah Mink
and Paul Ruddle
UGAKey Founders