Resolution 96/97-04

This document incorporates amendments passed during the meeting.

Benefits for Domestic Partners

The Academic Senate urges the University of Southern California to adopt and implement the following statement of policy:

The University of Southern California recognizes that lesbian and gay faculty and staff members who are, or who may wish to become, involved in long-term relationships are not permitted to marry and therefore cannot qualify for benefits available to the spouses of employees and their children. Believing that the inequity thereby created is not consistent with the University’s Strategic Plan or the need to eliminate patterns of unequal treatment in benefits, the University shall henceforth accord health benefits to the same-gender domestic partners of employees and their children that are identical to the benefits accorded to spouses and their children.

Universities throughout the country have adopted such policies, including such schools as Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, MIT, New York University, Princeton, Stanford, University of Chicago, University of Iowa, University of Minnesota, and University of Pennsylvania. The failure of the University of Southern California to provide such benefits impedes the recruitment and retention of gay and lesbian faculty.

The University’s failure to provide benefits to lesbian and gay faculty and staff members who are involved in long-term relationships is unjustified discrimination. The experience at other comparable universities shows that the costs to the University will be small. The Academic Senate urges the University to rectify this failing and adopt a policy of providing benefits to partners of lesbian and gay faculty and staff members.

Action taken: Passed, with one abstention