The recently announced policy that requires all Syracuse University students to have health insurance by the start of the 2016–17 academic year was the result of “deferred maintenance,” Chancellor Kent Syverud said.

In an interview with The Daily Orange, Syverud said he realizes there is frustration with how details of the change were communicated, but added that he’s tried to improve on that and allow time for people to learn what their choices are.

Announced in mid-March, SU’s new policy will require all graduate students, international students and incoming students to have health insurance that is compliant with the Affordable Care Act by the start of the 2015–16 school year. Current students will be required to have compatible coverage by the start of the 2016–17 year. The purpose of the change was to reduce costs and improve care.

The decision was met with resistance from students, particularly graduate student employees such as teaching assistants, research assistants and graduate assistants. As a result, the university announced that it would allow graduate student employees to stay on the current employee plan until a transition to the student plan is agreeable to both the Graduate Student Organization and the university administration.

Syverud said he understands the Provost’s Office and the Student Affairs Office had members from every school and college participating in a workgroup to gather information on the health care coverage policy. The group worked for two years, he said.

The workgroup had a recommendation similar to the new policy, but Syverud said he negotiated a yearlong extension with the health care provider, Aetna, to confer with more people about the change. However, he said that extension was coming to an end and something had to be done so there was an insurance plan available to students that complied with the Affordable Care Act.

Kevin Quinn, senior vice president for public affairs, added that the university has committed to forming a workgroup with representation from an array of graduate students to move forward and help them better understand that, in most cases, the new plan has better costs.