Date: Mon, 9 Jan 1995 13:26:27 -0500 From: Robert Bryant Finally! Duke has announced that they will begin offering benefits to same-sex domestic partners, the first university in the South to do so. I have appended the article which appeared in Friday's Duke Dialogue. I will post again at greater length when more details become available. Yours, Robert Bryant From: Duke Dialogue 6 January 1995 Page 2, Column 1 Comparable Benefits to be Offered The Office of Human Resources is implementing a policy extending a number of the benefits available to married employees and their families to same-sex spousal equivalents. Lois Ann Green, manager of benefits administration, said she expects that interested employees will be able to register for new insurance benefits during an open enrollment period in May, with the benefits to become effective July 1, and that eligibility for other benefits will begin March 1. Under the policy, Duke employees and their same-sex partners who will sign an affidavit certifying their mutual commitment to and financial responsibility for each other, and who can produce proof of that financial responsibility, can receive most of the same benefits available to married couples. Some benefits will not be available because of tax laws or other legal considerations and because of policies of Duke's insurance carriers. Benefits that will become available to same-sex partners will include insurance, health care, educational assistance, and use of Duke recreational facilities. On Dec. 20, an implementation working group appointed by President Nannerl O. Keohane sent her a report addressing a number of logistical issues raised by various campus committees and suggesting how the policy could be established. Keohane included a copy of the report in a Jan. 3 letter to Toby Kahr, associate vice president for human resources, and asked that the extension of comparable benefits take place as soon as feasible. The action is the latest in a series of steps responding to Duke's 1988 Equal Opportunity Policy that pledged not to discriminate [against] people on the basis of their sexual orientation or preference. In 1990, President Keith Brodie appointed a set of task forces to determine whether Duke's practices were in keeping with the spirit of this policy. One of the task forces recommended that Duke make benefits available to members of long-term, committed, same-sex partnerships. Brodie supported the proposal and requested further study to determine if there were legal or other considerations that would prohibit implementing such a policy. Those reviews concluded there was no legal basis for benefits practices to be inconsistent with Duke's nondiscrimination policy, and that financial impact of extending comparable benefits to same-sex partners would be minor. "After extensive consultation with several committees, including the Faculty Compensation Committee and the Executive Committee of the Academic Council, as well as with the Board of Trustees and a variety of administrative personnel ... I have decided to ask Human Resources to proceed to implement a number of comparable benefits," Keohane wrote Kahr. "The most pressing argument for extending these benefits is our desire to live up to our policy of nondiscrimination," Keohane wrote Kahr. "While it has been suggested that Duke benefits should also be extended to unmarried heterosexual couples, the proposal I have endorsed does not recommend such a step at this time, since heterosexual couples can already receive full Duke benefits by taking the formal step of marriage. This, of course, is not an option now open to same-sex couples in North Carolina." At least 28 colleges and universities, including Harvard, Yale, Stanford, Penn, Columbia, Dartmouth, Chicago, MIT, Smith and Wellesley, as well as a number of North Carolina corporations already offer such benefits to their employees. "Our failure to provide these benefits puts us at a disadvantage with other institutions with which we compete for outstanding faculty and staff," Keohane said. Forms for registering same-sex partners will be available in the Benefits Administration office beginning Feb. 1. For more information on the comparable benefits progam, call Benefits Administration at [919-] 684-6723.