Graduate school administrators held an open forum on Tuesday to discuss ways to improve transparency regarding Syracuse University’s plans to modify health insurance for graduate fellows and assistants.

Peter Vanable, associate provost for graduate studies and dean of the university’s Graduate School, spoke during the event in Lyman Hall. Only two students attended the forum.

“We see graduate students as integral to our success as a research university,” Vanable said. “I’m staking my success as dean on these initiatives.”

In a previous interview with The Daily Orange, Brian Hennigan, a Ph.D. geography student, said he has to pay $1,600 of his monthly $5,000 income for his health insurance. Syracuse Graduate Employees United, a campus organization that hopes to form an employees’ union, wants the administration to pay the entirety of student employees’ health insurance. Hennigan is a leader of SGEU. About 1,200 graduate students work in teaching or research positions at the university.

Vanable said he would like to present health insurance policies offered by SU upon admission, in the future, to improve transparency and make offers to graduate students more competitive.

In 2015, the university attempted to move graduate student employees from the employee health insurance plan to the student plan, SGEU wrote in a letter to the editor to The Daily Orange. The university’s Graduate Student Organization, in response, voted to censure the administration.

During the listening session Tuesday, Associate Dean of the Graduate School Gabrielle Chapman said the university first offered health insurance plans to graduate student employees in 2015. Based on student feedback, the administration determined that students would be willing to pay more for better coverage, she added.

Starting in 2016, the administration started offering a “platinum plan” to student employees with expanded coverage, available for a higher premium, she said. This was an expansion from the “gold plan,” which is what the graduate student health insurance plan is currently called.

“Maybe there’s something inherent about student insurance plans that seems more transient,” said Christopher Rick, a graduate student in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs’ public administration program. Rick attended the listening session.

He added that confusion around certain areas of health care coverage contributed to graduate students’ anxieties.

While the typical workweek of a graduate employee is 20 hours, Rick said the actual work he does often exceeds that time. He said the insurance benefits of those jobs are especially important when it comes to accepting graduate employee positions because of the workload.

Rick added that there’s additional concern for international students, whose home countries have different health care policies than the United States. He said there’s a need for additional clarification from the university about the coverage. There is a trust issue between the students and the administration, Rick said.

Vanable said any plans the administration and committees come up with will also need to be approved by students. Conversations will continue between the administration and the student body, not just GSO, he said.

“That’s on us to deliver and continue to have students involved,” Vanable said. “If we mess this up, we’re messing up our own plans.”

Vanable said the hope is to continue communication between university staff and students. Vanable, in the past two weeks, has sent emails to graduate students about the plans.

Associate Vice President for University Communications Sarah Scalese added that no changes have been made yet to either the student or employee health insurance plans.

“We want students who care, not just students who will agree with us,” Vanable said. “If we move in directions that don’t favor students, you’ll hear about it.”

Published on February 27, 2018 at 10:12 pm

Contact Charlie: cesawyer@syr.edu