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CMU panel endorses same-sex benefits
Tuesday, March 21, 2000 By Bill Schackner, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
A draft report produced after a four-year study by a staff and faculty panel at Carnegie Mellon University says the school should extend health benefits to same-sex couples.
Copies of the draft report are posted on the faculty senate's home page.
The panel undertook the study at the request of former campus President Robert Mehrabian. Its recommendation will be shared with the university's board of trustees for consideration as soon as its May 22 meeting, said Don Hale, secretary to the board and vice president for university relations.
It also will be discussed by the school's faculty senate, which meets April 5, campus administrators said yesterday.
If the recommendation is followed, Carnegie Mellon would be the fourth campus in Pennsylvania and the first in the Pittsburgh region to offer the benefit. Others are Swarthmore College, the University of Pennsylvania and Dickinson College, according to groups that track the issue.
The recommendation comes as the University of Pittsburgh continues to defend itself against a lawsuit by seven current and former employees who said they were wrongly denied health insurance for their gay and lesbian partners.
In that highly charged case, Common Pleas Judge Robert Gallo is expected within days to decide on a motion by Pitt to bar the case from proceeding. The suit is being pursued by lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of the employees.
At Carnegie Mellon, the job of tackling the potentially divisive subject was given to the university's human relations commission. The group was established more than a decade ago to handle controversial subjects, many related to the school's anti-discrimination policy.
The panel, whose chairman is appointed by the administration, typically handles workplace disputes, discrimination cases and other matters that do not require action by the board of trustees. But amending the school's policy on health benefits would require a board vote.
Three campus hearings and a wave of testimony from 50 faculty, staff and students led to the draft report.
"Some of it was very emotional. People cried," said Otto "Toby" Davis, who chairs the commission and is a professor of economics and public policy. "People feel very deeply on both sides of it. They have a very deep moral sense about it. They both think they have the high moral ground."
The panel has yet to address what eligibility requirements might be placed on couples seeking the benefit, should the university decide to extend it.
Davis said the requirements might be similar to those at other campuses. A variety of standards are used, such as joint ownership of property, whether the partners are named as beneficiaries in life insurance policies and how many years the relationship has existed.
The seven-page draft report is still being reviewed by members of the commission and will be revised over the next two weeks. Davis, who authored the draft report, said he does not expect the panel to reverse its recommendation for extending the benefit.
"We are a diverse community. Perhaps by the very nature of being a modern university in America, we are composed of different ethnic groups, nationalities, religions, colors and, yes, sexual orientations," stated the report. "If we are to be a great university, we must be tolerant of, and respect, each other."
The report said it could not reconcile the arguments of opponents, who cited defense of the traditional family and religious concerns, with those of supporters who said denying the benefit amounted to discrimination.
"We simply grant and respect the positions held," the report said.
Even so, the report said the commission believes the matter could be addressed in more pragmatic terms, such as competition for top job candidates.
The report noted that managers at the university have said they were handicapped in their efforts to attract and retain some quality employees.
The report cited MIT, Harvard and Stanford as among the prestigious schools that now provide same-sex benefits.
"The institutions in the middle of the country seem to be lagging. However, even in this middle part, the most distinguished institutions, those who we like to call our competitors, have adopted such a policy."
Among those schools are the University of Chicago, Northwestern University, Washington University and Cornell.
The report noted that Pennsylvania law does not recognize gay marriage. It also noted arguments by those who say the prohibition places gays and lesbians in an impossible position when it comes to seeking health benefits based on marriage.
"We have found it impossible to make a meaningful distinction between the nature of a same-sex partnership which is committed and meaningful, and a heterosexual marriage, except for the obvious point," the report said. "To us, these relationships seem to be on the same level as a marriage except for recognition by the state."
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