Domestic partnership

Faculty Senate supports domestic-partner benefits

by Toni Searle

The Faculty Senate has supported a resolution to extend the fringe benefits available for married couples -- except for tuition waivers -- to same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners of CWRU employees.

The Senate approved resolution at its March 16 meeting after a short discussion, with no opposition and two abstentions.

The Faculty Senate's Fringe Benefits committee had been discussing the issue since early last fall, at the request of a few faculty members, said Keith Robinson, who chairs the committee.

As Robinson began updating the full Senate about the committee's work during the December meeting, "immediately people got very interested in it, and the reaction was very positive," he said.

"I think quite a few people in that first Senate meeting just felt that it was the right thing to do," to match the University's non-discrimination policy and "Share the Vision" program philosophy.

The Board of Trustees in November 1988 approved adding sexual orientation to the University's non-discrimination policy, which now states, in part, that CWRU "does not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, age, sex, color, disability, sexual orientation, or national or ethnic origin in administration of its educational policies, admission policies, scholarship or loan programs, or athletic or other University-administered programs."

"Share the Vision" is a five-point statement focusing on helping the University "realize our vision of a just and humane campus community at CWRU."

"When you consider the number of universities that offer this benefit, we're not breaking new ground. It's becoming pretty standard," Robinson said.

Having this benefit available could aid in recruiting. Robinson added that some universities have lost candidates to institutions which offer this benefit.

The Staff Advisory Council's Fringe Benefits Committee has also been exploring the topic of fringe benefits for domestic partners. That committee held several open campus meetings on the issue in recent weeks to provide information on its research and solicit feedback from the University community.

Committee representatives also presented information on domestic partnership benefits at the January 28 SAC meeting, with an eye toward asking the council to consider approving a resolution at its April 1 meeting.

The fringe benefits committees have fielded questions about possible cost implications of adding benefits for domestic partners.

Robinson said that there would be administrative costs associated with offering the benefit and collecting employees' documentation of their domestic partnerships.

He added that employers which offer the benefit have not experienced much of an impact on their fringe benefits budgets.

In researching the issue, members of both the Faculty Senate and SAC fringe benefits committees found that two of CWRU's medical insurance carriers -- Kaiser Permanente and QualChoice -- could add domestic partners to benefits packages at no additional cost. Employees and their partners would pick up the additional monthly insurance premiums.

According to Internal Revenue Service regulations, employees must pay income tax on the value of fringe benefits for domestic partners and their eligible dependents.

Robinson presented information on domestic partners' benefits to the Faculty Senate's Executive Committee, which asked for additional information before proceeding.

Among questions were costs at other institutions which offer these benefits, and what affidavits these institutions require of employees to demonstrate domestic partnerships.

Robinson again met with the Faculty Senate's Executive Committee in early March, and the Executive Committee then gave its support to the committee's resolution.

While preparing a resolution for the Faculty Senate's consideration, the Fringe Benefits Committee did not recommend offering tuition waiver benefits to domestic partners.

In early 1997, CWRU announced changes to the University's tuition waiver policy in response to reductions in federal funding for tuition benefits for employees' spouses and dependents.

While dependent children still will receive full tuition waivers for their undergraduate coursework, the waiver amount was cut in half for dependents' graduate coursework, as well as for spouses' coursework at any level.

The new tuition waiver benefits took effect immediately for new employees, and will take effect after June 30, 2001, for faculty and staff who were on campus before January 1, 1997.

Because the University had recently reduced previous tuition waiver benefits, Robinson said the committee felt it would be difficult to add this benefit for a new group.