Angry over a plan that students said would require them to pay more for health coverage, students from UMass Amherst and Dartmouth protested outside the university president’s office in Boston yesterday.
The students said a new health plan at the two campuses would require them to pay about 15 percent “co-insurance” costs for health care outside the university.
A group of students put on bandages before taking up their signs and sitting in front of the building housing UMass President Robert Caret’s downtown Boston office.
“By allowing this health insurance plan to pass at UMass [Caret] is taking a stand against students. By passing this health insurance plan he’s cutting out a major population of students that worked hard to get into these schools,” said Sarah Kelley, a senior at UMass Amherst and an intern for Jobs with Justice, a group that helped organize the protest.
The group planned to enter the building to ask to meet with Caret, but building security refused to let them in. Boston Police were called and eventually the group was told a representative would speak with one of them.
Jocelyn Silverlight, a UMass Amherst graduate student and member of Graduate Employee Organization, met with university Treasurer David Gray in the lobby of the building.
She said she was pleased with the conversation and hoped Gray would help open up the lines of communication to work on the health plan.
A message left for a UMass spokesman was not returned by press time.
