Several students and university officials are stressing the need for UW-Madison to join other Big Ten schools in providing domestic partner benefits to employees.
Gov. Jim Doyle included domestic partner benefits in his proposal for the 2009-'11 budget cycle Feb. 17. Benefits would provide partners in Wisconsin the right to property inheritance, hospital visitation rights and health insurance, which would specifically affect UW-Madison employees.
UW-Madison is currently the only university in the Big Ten that does not provide domestic partner health benefits to faculty and staff. The health benefit plan proposed in previous budget cycles was dropped each time by the Joint Finance Committee. In 2006, the Wisconsin Legislative Fiscal Bureau estimated the plan's cost between $7.6 million and $15.2 million per year.
According to Chris Daniels, founder of the coalition for the United Council of UW Students, the plan has been treated as an expendable bargaining chip and is an issue the university has faced for a decade.
""Every single program is examined and cuts are made across the board,"" Daniels said. ""When [people] say we should implement these benefits which are already a little controversial, and it costs a certain amount to implement them, [legislators] then use the budget deficit as an excuse to not implement it.""
According to Steve Stern, vice provost for faculty and staff services, the absence of domestic partner health benefits caused UW-Madison faculty and employees to look for career opportunities elsewhere.
According to Stern, a former physics and nanotechnology professor left UW-Madison in 2006 to teach at Pennsylvania State. His research and millions of dollars in grants were lost with his move. Stern said other professors left UW-Madison for universities including Cornell and New York University due do the lack of domestic health partner benefits in the UW System.
""Not having the benefits hurts our competitiveness,"" Stern said. ""It is harder to recruit faculty and harder to benefit from the full range of the talent out there so we can guarantee that we're recruiting the very best people in all fields to assist our research and teaching mission.""
According to Stern, political factions influenced past budget votes because of a Democratic state governor and Republican-ruled houses in the legislature.
""The political atmosphere is different this time,"" Stern said. ""We don't have a divided government like before.""
The UW-Madison Faculty Senate will address its stance on domestic partner benefits at a meeting Monday.
""Given that the governor has included domestic partner benefits in his budget bill, the university committee thought it would be good for the senate to reaffirm its position,"" David Musolf, secretary of the faculty, said in an interview. ""The best way to do that is to review the resolution.""
Daniels said several student groups will also be looking for ways to support the inclusion of domestic partner benefits in the budget in the upcoming months. He said the coalition for the United Council of UW Students will be hosting a Day of Action March 25 in support of the benefits.
""We're going to have laptops and cell phones ready for students, faculty and staff to call their representatives, e-mail their representatives or write a letter showing their support … advocating for their representatives to fight for domestic partner benefits,"" Daniels said.
