We’re getting our first postdocs who are paid by stipends from an NIH
training grant and are having trouble with health insurance.  They’re
not on the payroll, so they’re not employees and are not eligible for
employee health insurance;  they don’t register for classes, so they’re
not students and are not eligible for the student plan.  How do other
schools handle this?  More broadly, what is the relationship of postdocs
to the university?  How do you define their status so as to trigger
access to the things they should have—ID cards, access to the library,
etc.?

Thanks