UGA's University Council to Consider Domestic Partner Benefits

It's the last agenda item for this month's meeting of the UGA University Council, a body composed of faculty, staff and students that makes policy recommendations to the administration.

The Human Resources Committee is asking administrators at the school "to develop and fully fund a benefits package for eligible employees with domestic partners that matches the benefits and premiums that are currently being granted to employees with spouses."

The measure would allow gay and lesbian couples, as well as heterosexual couples who aren't married, to become eligible for health insurance and voluntary benefits that could include dental, supplemental life insurance, and accidental death & dismemberment insurance. In April 2005, the University Council approved "soft benefits" for domestic partners, giving them access to the Ramsey Center and library.

Domestic partners at Georgia State University, Georgia Institute of Technology, Kennesaw State University, Georgia Perimeter College, and Georgia Health Sciences University are already eligible for voluntary benefits, such as vision and dental coverage, paid for by employee contributions.

According to the agenda item, written by the Human Resources Committee, "We maintain that if state funds currently cannot be used to fund the program, discretionary funds or other revenue sources should be used. Many other public universities across the country have developed similar programs without using state funds."

The University of Florida, the University of Arizona and the University of Wyoming all have domestic partner programs that use no state funds. Instead, they use things such as federal contracts and grants discretionary funds to external research funds. 

The University Council meets in the Tate Theatre of the Tate Student Center on Thursday at 3:30.