The facts: The proposed parental leave legislation in Student Senate would provide graduate students with the arrival of a new child to take six weeks leave from classes while still maintaining full-student status and a semester extension for graduation.

Our opinion: This bill provides students with the option of parental leave while continuing their education. It is not only a benefit to them, but also the state because it promotes higher education as well as family planning.

The Student Senate’s parental leave bill is modeled after an already-in-place policy at UNC-Chapel Hill and one N.C . State has for its faculty. It allows graduate students six weeks of parental leave for the arrival of a new child. It is important because it allows students to keep their full-time student status and have a semester extension on graduation.

This importance of being a full-time student to many are the health care and financial benefits, which many would lose by taking leave without some type of policy to protect them. For international students, this type of leave could result in the loss of the student visa.

With this potential parental leave policy, graduate students wouldn’t have to worry about these types of issues when expecting.

While many in opposition of this legislation say it is not fair to give these parent students a break, the benefits can not only help the students, but also the state. This policy promotes higher education as well as family planning.

Sometimes graduate students, or even undergraduates with the intent of going further in their education, go to school and postpone having children until later in their career. This policy will allow them to remove some of the worry of having a child while going to school.

This type of policy is already enacted at UNC-CH , and NCSU should catch up. This proposal creates another edge for the University when it comes to promoting its graduate schools.

The senate will vote on this bill at their meeting this Wednesday, and it will then to the Faculty Senate. If it receives full support, Provost Warwick Arden will put to motion enacting this type of policy.

Student and faculty representatives in the two senates should see the potential impact of this policy and support it. The University should see this policy through and allow it to take effect. This type of policy is the essence of the N.C . State’s land grant mission — to provide equal higher education for all.