Trustees approve same-sex partner benefits

By Susan Dillman

The IU plan will extend health-care benefits and other privileges now available to the spouse of a married employee or student to same-sex couples. Those participating in the plan will have to register with the university that they are in an exclusive relationship.

In recent weeks, the proposal was unanimously endorsed by the leadership of the IU Bloomington Faculty Council and the IUPUI Faculty Council.

“This is very special day for me and for all faculty of Indiana University,” Paul Galanti, president of the IUPUI Faculty Council, told the board. Galanti cited the extensive effort on the part of faculty and staff to bring this issue before the board.

“The faculty is sending us a clear message about the significance of this issue—a message I fully appreciate and endorse,” said IU President Myles Brand.

“We are at a distinct competitive disadvantage without this provision for our employees. In a global market that places a premium on talent, we must be on equal footing with our peers if we hope to succeed,” Brand added.

Brand and members of the board also stressed that fundamental fairness and equity dictated the need to extend benefits to domestic partners.

More than150 colleges and universities nationwide, including four other public Big Ten universities, now offer domestic-partner benefits to their employees. Iowa, Michigan, Michigan State and Minnesota are the other Big Ten publics offering the benefit. Iowa was the first to do so, in 1992. Northwestern, the only private university in the Big Ten, also offers these benefits.

About 140 of the nation’s Fortune 500 firms offer domestic-partner benefits. Major Indiana employers who do so include Cummins Engine Co., Bank One, Lincoln National Life Insurance Co., Delphi Automotive and Gannett Co.

Based on the experience of other Big Ten universities, IU officials estimate about 50 employees will take advantage of the new benefit, adding about one-third of 1 percent to the university’s overall annual expenditure for health insurance.

http://www.indiana.edu/~trustees/