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 UNC-Chapel 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.