Updated: April 9, 2015 at 3:36 p.m.

On Thursday around noon, members of THE General Body and the Graduate Student Organization held a rally in front of Hendricks Chapel regarding grievances about the recent health care plan changes.

Those in attendance started and ended the rally by chanting: “The students united will never be defeated.”

During the rally, seven graduate students took turns using a megaphone to speak to a crowd of about 70 people — and one dog — about personal and shared grievances involving the recent change to the health care requirement. At the end, rally-goers marched to health services along Waverly Avenue.

In March, Syracuse University announced that all graduate students, international students and incoming students would be required to have a health insurance plan compliant with the Affordable Care Act by the start of the 2015-16 academic year.

Switching to the new health care plan, offered through Aetna Student Health, would require these students to pay roughly $558 extra.

Two of the graduate students who spoke were international students, as well as single mothers. The two women spoke about their current financial struggles and how the health care change would worsen their situations.

Transitioning between speakers, the crowd would chant phrases like: “Education is a right — not just for the rich and white.”

“I don’t know about y’all, but I’m anxious this morning. And anxiety is a common symptom of graduate students,” said Sam Castleberry, a graduate student in the religion department, when he began his rally speech.

Castleberry told the crowd that he goes shopping with a pen and paper to make sure that he does not go over budget so that he can still afford to pay for his Internet and rent.

Castleberry said despite his anxieties when he came to SU he was able to say that at least he had good health care insurance. He said the change to the current health care plan would be “a huge reduction in benefits.”

“We should not be afraid of the administration — the administration should be afraid of us,” Castleberry said, causing the crowd to cheer loudly in agreement.

Castleberry added that if the university wants to devalue the graduate students’ labor, then they will not give them their labor. He said the graduate employees have power as a result of their labor contributions.

After about 30 minutes, the rally ended with the crowd again chanting: “The students united will never be defeated” as they marched to the SU Health Center.

Patrick Neary, GSO president, said after the rally ended that the rally was about generating more awareness and keeping these topics on everyone’s radar.

“To me the main point is that we need students to be involved in this,” Neary said. “To me it’s not even about the specific decisions that were made, it’s about how they were made.”

Neary added that through rallies like Thursday’s, students have demonstrated that they are angry about how decisions are being made. Neary said groups like GSO have demonstrated that they have students willing to be involved in the decision-making process.

At the moment, GSO has not planned any more rallies for the future, but Neary could not say for sure what THE General Body has planned.

Published on April 9, 2015 at 2:27 pm

Contact Sara: smswann@syr.edu | @saramswann