2008 Woodie Awards
ISU SOFT BENEFITS EXTENDED TO FACULTY'S "SIGNIFICANT OTHERS"
Unmarried faculty members will receive same soft benefits for partners as married faculty members
Jessica Lum
Issue date: 3/2/05 Section: News
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If approved by President Bowen, ISU faculty members in long-term relationships will be able to get their significant others recognized as domestic partners, allowing them to take advantage of the same benefits offered to spouses of faculty.
"We want to offer the same benefits to all faculty members," said Dr. John Masserini, Senate Faculty representative for the music department. Masserini feels that extending soft benefits to domestic partners of Idaho State Faculty and staff members should be part of the university's nondiscrimination policy.
"Domestic partnerships are not just same-sex, they are opposite-sex relationships as well," Masserini said.
Such benefits are provided by the Bengal card and include use of Reed Gym, discounts on athletic events and theater tickets, and use of the university library.
Prior to the vote, Masserini extensively researched the issue and discovered ISU would be joining many universities who already extend benefits to domestic partners.
"Over 280 universities nationwide currently offer 'hard' benefits to domestic partners and presumably many more offer 'soft' benefits," Masserini said.
The most recent accreditation report named 16 universities (in and out of state) as peer institutions of ISU, based on similar enrollment standards, budget size, geography, classification and role/mission and program mix. Of the 16 institutions, nine of them already offer soft benefit policies to domestic partners, and one is negotiating health benefits. The remaining six universities have yet to offer benefits to domestic partners.
"There is really nothing new and innovative about [the policy]. Many companies, state governments and universities already have plans like this one," said Doug Nilson, former chair of the Faculty Senate.
In order take advantage of the policy, faculty members must prove their domestic partnership by meeting at least three of five criteria specified by the university.
The criteria, borrowed from Northern Arizona University's Partner Benefits Program, includes providing evidence of dependent children residing with or financially dependent upon the partners, including each another in their wills, maintaining primary residence together for six months or more, maintaining joint banking or savings accounts, and maintaining each other as primary beneficiary of life insurance policies, pension or retirement plans.
Aside from reasons of equity, the plan makes logical marketing sense to faculty member Brian Norman.
"This policy would help ISU recruit and retain the best faculty for students," Norman said. "It follows the trends of both education and private corporations."
On the other hand, Faculty Senate representative Dr. Kitty Pumphrey argues the policy has serious moral implications for the university and the institution of marriage.
"I believe it is society's responsibility to do its utmost to protect the sanctity of marriage, "Pumphrey said. "Marriage creates families and families are the basic unit of our society."
Others, like Masserini, feel that morality is not and should not be the issue.
"[Marriage is] the decision of two people. What two consenting adults decide in no way threatens the decisions of two other consenting adults," Masserini said. In other words, if two unmarried people decide to live together, that in no way threatens another couple who chooses to get married. Masserini said that marriage has already been legally recognized by the government and is therefore already protected as an institution.
Another argument against the policy is that in extending any kind of benefits, even soft, will be costly to the university. But when the soft benefits are actually calculated, it seems that the cost to the university is small- the largest discount being $10 off a theater ticket or an athletic event.
According to Brian Sagendorf, ISU Benefits Administrator, even if ISU wanted to extend certain hard benefits like insurance to domestic partners, the cost would still be minimal.
Sagendorf said that since ISU is a state institution, the state must offer the same benefits to ISU faculty and staff as it does to any other government employee. For example, the university pays a health insurance premium of $6,493 per employee, regardless of the number of people in the family. The same plan covers mental health, vision, and dental.
"So whether they are married, single or have five kids, the cost to the university is the same," Sagendorf said.
Life insurance for state employees costs 1.1 percent of the employee's salary. This means that if an ISU employee dies, the person named as his/her beneficiary, who may not necessarily be a spouse, will receive a one-time full premium that is equal to the annual salary of the deceased. In other words, whether the faculty member was married or in a domestic partnership, the financial burden is on the insurance company not the university.
As far as extending insurance coverage to domestic partners at ISU, Sagendorf said that will be up to the state not the University. "There would need to be a major change in state policy," Sagendorf said. "The state of Idaho's Department of Administration must first recognize domestic partnerships as legal unions before ISU could negotiate extending coverage to them."
While there is still plenty of room and time for discussing a hard benefit policy, adoption of a soft benefit policy will align ISU closer with its nondiscrimination practices and policies.
"This is really an issue of equity, not morality," Masserini said.