Faculty Senate supports domestic partner benefits

The Faculty Senate adopted a resolution at its Oct. 7 meeting calling for health benefits for domestic partners of employees.

The resolution, approved without negative vote, points out that 150 colleges and universities, six states, and more than 100 cities and counties extend domestic partner health benefits to employees.

In addition to equity and fairness, the resolution states that domestic partner health benefits would make the university more competitive. “The University of Wisconsin’s ability to recruit and retain high-quality employees is demonstrated to be compromised by its lack of competitive health benefits,” the resolution reads.

The actual decision of whether to extend health insurance benefits to domestic partners rests with the Legislature.

“Faculty support on this issue will strengthen the university’s position to press for changes that we believe are important to the university,” the resolution’s preamble reads.