Graduate Student Senate has passed a resolution that could lead to obtaining benefits for the domestic partners of graduate students.
The resolution passed with 22 out of 23 votes with one abstention during Monday night’s GSS meeting. The resolution will soon be sent to UT administration, including Chancellor Jimmy Cheek.
Amber Woodburn, representative for civil and environmental engineering, was one of the presenters for the resolution. She was surprised but grateful that it passed so unanimously.
“I’m very pleased, and I’m glad that it was an informed vote,” Woodburn said. “We had a lot of time to prepare and offer insights and facts about the background.”
Woodburn, along with Ingram Cope (the representative for social work), gave a brief presentation on both the resolution and the research that went into it. Research included information about how many Top 25 and SEC universities offer some form of benefits to domestic partners of faculty.
In the Top 25 schools, 19 of them offer healthcare benefits to the domestic partners of faculty (three in the SEC), 13 offer a leave policy (two in the SEC) and 12 offer some form of counseling (two in the SEC). That high number of Top 25 schools was part of the argument in support of the resolution.
Woodburn attributed the research in the presentation to the relatively short discussion on the resolution and the favorable vote. She recalled how much discussion had occurred back in October when the idea for the resolution first occurred.
“I expected a lot of discussion and questions about implementation when we came today,” Woodburn said. “We had previously discussed in October in a different meeting with no preparation … and the meeting went on for like an extra 15, 20 minutes before we said ‘OK stop, we need to prepare.’
“I think that because we did a good job coordinating our research and filling out our presentation that the discussion (on Monday) went a lot smoother.”
The resolution does not call for implementation of policy, but rather asks for written responses from Cheek and Vice Provost and Dean of Graduate School Carolyn Hodges regarding how “the administration’s plans for progress on benefit equality. …”
The resolution asks for all benefits available to the married partners of graduate students to be made available to the unmarried partners of same-sex and opposite-sex partners.
GSS further clarified benefit equality in three parts.
The first clarification stipulates that eligibility for domestic partners (and their children) of grad students be labeled as dependents through the grad student insurance plan. Secondly, the resolution asks to be able to take a leave of absence to take care of domestic partner or a domestic partner’s child, should GSS’ leave of absence policy be approved.
The third example is to have access to a list of additional campus services, including library privileges, membership to recreational facilities and parking.In many ways, the GSS resolution is similar to the Faculty Senate resolution passed in April 2012. The Faculty Senate resolution also requested a response from Cheek about obtaining domestic partner benefits for faculty.
Earlier this year, Cheek and Agricultural Chancellor Larry Arrington released a new statement in regards to the faculty’s resolution. The letter stated that because the Tennessee Constitution defines marriage as between one man and one woman, and UT is a state organization, there was nothing the university could do to offer benefits to domestic partners. President Joe DiPietro has stated that he supports the chancellors’ position.
GSS hopes to bypass this hurdle by pointing out that grad students are not defined as state employees the same way faculty are, but rather they are employees of the university. Therefore, GSS believes the state constitution would not be a hindrance.
Furthermore, GSS and the resolution point out that the insurance benefits offered to graduate students and their spouses are not part of their contract, as it is with faculty. Rather, grad students have to buy their insurance themselves. Therefore, GSS reasons that there will be no cost to the university to extend the benefits to include domestic partners.Now that the resolution has been passed and will soon be in the hands of the administration, both Woodburn and Cope are hoping for a positive response, although they are aware of the potential hurdles.
If anything, Cope is hoping for at least a response that is knowledgeable and constructive.
“I’d like for them to come forth with an informed statement as to why we either take or do not take this opportunity before us,” Cope said. “Graduate students are in a unique position, and it would increase the friendly climate here on campus.”
