I would like to take a moment to say thank you to the University of Minnesota’s Office of Student Health Benefits. On Feb.18, the Minnesota Daily published the article “Grad students mischarged for health insurance,” which described how some graduate students were charged $950 and informed that their health insurance provider had changed. From the article we learned, “It’s not a mistake.” What a pleasant surprise it was to read those words.

The article led to an apologetic email that included no apology informing all graduate students that their plan had not changed. This came more than a month after the $950 charge, and it was the first indication that our insurer had not in fact changed — after new insurance cards had been issued.

Thank you, then, University of Minnesota for continuing to treat your graduate student employees with respect and dignity. It’s times like these that I am thankful that we have no union and can instead deal directly and unbureaucratically with our employers.