Give us dental or give us death

It appears that after an extended struggle, IU graduate students will not receive dental insurance as part of their benefits. The Indiana Daily Student Editorial Board has long supported the graduate students in their attempt to get dental insurance, and the University's refusal to grant their request represents a terribly short-sighted solution with unfortunate repercussions.\nWe understand that the money's tight, but in light of IU's quest to become a top-flight research university, it seems silly to cut benefits for the group that will be performing much of the research. When a graduate school candidate looks at potential options, benefits such as health insurance are extremely important. After all, the same rising health care costs that prompted IU to reject dental insurance affect graduate students as well. \nWhile health care costs are increasing across the board, the complaint here is not simply graduate students looking to drain the institution dry. Dental insurance is important, but the refusal of the administration to grant it demonstrates an attitude toward graduate students altogether unbefitting a university that hopes to increase its research prowess. It's a question of competitive edge, and IU has not established its priorities to meet those of the graduate students.\nIf IU truly wishes to become a top-tier research institution, it must lure the best students with enticing offers. Good benefits get better students, who get more grants for even better benefits. This cycle of spending helps the best research universities attract the best researchers. Conversely, the less money we spend recruiting qualified graduate candidates, the less return we'll get on our research. \nWhile it's true that IU has its fair share of budgetary woes, the University's effort to reach out to prospective students still ranks at the bottom of the Big Ten. Of Big Ten schools, only Penn State and IU don't offer dental benefits for their graduate students. \nThe issue at hand is not simply whether to give dental insurance to graduate students, but rather, how much the University genuinely wants the most qualified graduate students to make their mark at IU. And when graduate students are underpaid and overworked, without benefits regularly available at other institutions, one cannot be surprised if they don't look kindly upon IU. \nWe have no doubt that IU is making an effort to find the money to fund this project, but graduate students have made it clear they are willing to make sacrifices in their stipends to help fund a dental plan. Regardless of budgetary concerns, an inability to come up with a plan to even partially pay for graduate student dental insurance is regrettable. IU's administrators have to make some tough choices about what to do with limited funding, but here, they chose wrong, and it will hurt.