Monday, 7/14/97 Regents to consider extending benefits to
domestic partners BENEFITS: Atkinson’s support highlights issue of
definition of ‘family’
By Hannah Miller Daily Bruin Senior Staff Domestic partner
benefits may be coming to UC faculty, staff and students – after 40
other colleges and universities have already implemented them.
Although various "soft" benefits (such as library and recreation
privileges) are already offered to the domestic partners of UC
employees, the Board of Regents will soon consider extending the
"hard" benefits: Health care, pension, survivor benefits and
housing options. "Without these benefits, the university violates
its own non-discrimination policy on sexual orientation," said Greg
Vaughn, with the University of California Students Association
(UCSA). As defined by many institutions, domestic partnership
refers to long-term relationships "similar to marriage." It is a
wider definition of a family that include gays and lesbians, who
can’t legally marry. When normal spousal benefits are extended to
domestic partners, typically between .5 and 2 percent of the work
force is affected. The Regents’ discussion on the topic next week
is an informational meeting, but UC President Richard Atkinson has
already started talks with the campuses about the possible
configurations of a benefits program. The benefits possibly
affected include the fattest carrots UCLA offers its employees:
Pensions, health care, dental care, vision services and access to
housing for students with families. At the UCLA Benefits Office,
administrators haven’t outlined a definite plan. Although Atkinson
controls the distribution of housing benefits, he has held off from
granting them without Regent support for health care. Depending on
how the regents vote, domestic partnership benefits could be
extended to same-sex partners, opposite-sex partners, or both. That
last option is "more feasibly what the Regents will look to because
there is so much homophobia on the board," said Felicia Perez, a
UCSA board member. Although Perez and others feel that to include
opposite-sex partners is "straying from the issue," their benefits
may depend on such a strategy. The board’s vote hinges on a large
number of swing voters who would vote yes if opposite-sex partners
are included, Perez commented. When the average organization
extends benefits to domestic partners, two-thirds of people who
apply are opposite-sex couples, said Jonathan Winters, co-chair of
the UC Lesbian Gay Bisexual and Transgender Association (UCLGBTA).
It is this type of program that will present the greatest financial
costs. The Regents’ discussion, to be held at the San Francisco
campus next Thursday, comes more than three years after the UC
Academic Council recommended that benefits be extended to domestic
partners. "The main reason that this is happening now is that we
have a university president who supports it," Winters said. The
availability of domestic partner benefits has always been within
the purview of President Atkinson, Vaughn said, "but the political
relationship with the Regents has been an impediment" to
implementation. "There’s been foot-dragging. They’ve said it was
coming up on the Regents agenda for a long time," Vaughn said.
"I’ve been there 16 years," said Regent Frank Clark, "and this is
the first time it has ever been mentioned." Despite insurer
warnings that premiums will rise, domestic partner benefits have
come to be commonplace within the last two years. In 1982, New
York’s "Village Voice" was the first employer in the nation to
offer domestic-partner benefits. Since then, the benefits have
become increasingly common, now offered by 10 percent of all
employers nationally. In California, that figure is 25 percent. Of
those that do, 43 percent offer benefits to both same-sex and
opposite-sex couples, one quarter limits benefits to opposite-sex
couples, and one-fifth limits benefits to same-sex couples. The
discussion next week comes on the heels of a publicity campaign
sponsored by UCSA, which sent over 4,000 pink postcards to Atkinson
last March, urging his support of domestic partners in the UCs.