When Elizabeth Volpe got mononucleosis last spring, she had to leave campus and was housebound for weeks. Then, she lost her job with the university.
Volpe, a former graduate assistant for the Ohio University Women’s Center, was put “in a really, really bad place” because her illness kept her from performing her job.
The university doesn’t have a clear cut policy on how long the student is eligible to leave his or her program, how much the student will be paid and who will foot the bill.
“With the lack of a policy, both myself and the Women’s Center were put in a really difficult situation because I wasn’t able to fulfill my requirements of a graduate assistant, but the Women’s Center still had to keep going,” Volpe said.
She lost her job and almost lost her tuition waiver. Volpe oversaw daily operations for the Women’s Center including social media, the mentoring program and some events.
“Life comes into play sometime for graduate students and they have medical conditions and family emergencies," David Koonce, associate dean for Graduate College, said. "Things happen in life and I think it is important that we develop a policy to at least keep their fundings and opportunities open to them.”
A "large percentage" of graduate students are either a graduate assistant, teaching assistant or research assistant, Koonce said.
A graduate assistant is typically paid by the university (a stipend that varies per position), but he or she does not necessarily teach classes. He or she might grade assignments or work in a lab, for example.
Teaching assistants are paid by university funds and are responsible for teaching and grading a class section. Research assistants are paid by external money for their research and typically work in a lab.
Volpe was a graduate assistant with the Women’s Center, which gave her a stipend and had a tuition waiver through the Voinovich School.
Susanne Dietzel, director of the Women’s Center, fired Volpe in an email.
Dietzel refused to comment on Volpe’s story.
Dietzel has been vocal lately about the need for a parental leave policy for graduate students who have a child, another policy affecting graduate students that OU does not have.
“The Women’s Center did what they had to do and I totally respect their choice,” Volpe said. “But because there’s not protection for anybody, it puts everyone in a bad situation. There were no guidelines for me to follow....I didn’t know when I was going to be back or what was going to happen.
“My biggest concern was finishing graduate school.”
Koonce said he thinks OU should have better procedures and protocols.
“Whether it's a centralized policy or each college has a policy of how they cover their classes...they need to have a policy to know this can happen and what are you going to do when it happens."
Carl Edward Smith III, president of OU’s Graduate Student Senate, previously told The Post the life of a graduate student is in general walking a fine line between faculty member and student.
“Graduate students have many of the duties and responsibilities of faculty, but they only have the rights and protections of students,” Smith said.
Despite all these obstacles, Volpe said she was able to finish her classes and graduate from the Voinovich School — an accomplishment she called a “happy ending.”
She is currently the program coordinator at the Barnett Center for Integrated Arts and Enterprise at Ohio State University.
“Things happen and you can’t control everything,” Volpe said. “ So having those safeguards in place would really I think improve the graduate assistantship.”
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