On Wednesday, May 6, members of the Faculty Welfare Committee gathered in Gonzaga Auditorium to protest the university’s health care options at the General Faculty Meeting.

The administration recently presented to the Faculty Salary Committee a proposal regarding faculty health care.

Currently, faculty have the option of choosing between two different health insurance plans, the Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) and the Health Savings Account (HSA). However, this proposal would remove the faculty’s choice to be on the PPO, which would force all faculty members to switch to the HSA.

This presents a problem for Associate Professor of Politics Jocelyn Boryczka, because “it is denying us choice in terms of our health care benefits. For some, the HSA surely makes sense, for others the PPO makes sense.”

Associate Professor of English Sonya Huber agreed that the lack of health insurance choice is a problem, saying “the limiting options is going to drastically curtail the kinds of healthcare that certain of our members can get access to in an affordable way.”0

In addition, according to Boryczka, “the administration made the proposal, this major change in our health care, without triggering the healthcare review committee,” which goes against a previously made agreement.

Through the protest, Professor of Mathematics Irene Mulvey hoped that the faculty members present could “put some pressure on the administration to work with us in good faith to reach an agreement.”

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