KSU To Offer Domestic Partner Benefits

A new contract for Kent State University faculty comes up for review this year, and an early draft released Wednesday includes a clause on health benefits extended to domestic partnerships for faculty members in a same-sex or opposite-sex relationship.
University spokesman Ron Kirksey confirmed Wednesday the domestic partnership clause is "part of" the new contract, though talks on the contract remain informal at this time.
If ratified in its current form, the contract would be a one-year extension of the current contract between the university and the KSU chapter of the American Association of University Professors, starting Aug. 23 and continuing through Aug. 23, 2009.
According to a draft of the proposal, domestic partners of the same or opposite sex of a member of the AAUP bargaining unit "may be covered for all benefits in those instances where the partner is not eligible for or already covered by another employer. These benefits will include medical, dental, life, personal accident insurance, and tuition remission at the same contribution level applicable to a spouse."
All domestic partner benefits will be subject to IRS rules, and a domestic partner must share a permanent residence with the bargaining member; have been in a relationship for at least six months; intend to remain in the relationship indefinitely; not currently married or legally separated from another person; not related by blood so as to be disqualified from marriage in Ohio; and financially independent of their significant other.
Kirksey said a verbal offer was made in February, but any formal agreement is "still a ways away."
The proposal also clearly states that any agreement accepted by both parties would still have to be ratified by the KSU Board of Trustees, the AAUP and the KSU Foundation Board of Trustees.
Domestic partners applying for benefits also would be required to sign an "Affidavit of Domestic Partnership," according to the draft document, which also discusses a 3 percent raise in faculty salaries and no change in costs to faculty for employee healthcare contributions.
KSU's Faculty Senate unanimously approved a resolution on Feb. 13, 2006 to extend healthcare benefits to domestic partners under the university's health plan. Faculty senators said at the time there was no law in the state preventing such a change, and said such a extension would be in keeping with the university's non-discrimination policies.
University of Akron spokesman Ken Torisky said that university "does not currently offer" benefits to domestic partners of the same or opposite sex. Youngstown State University does offer domestic partner benefits to partners of the same sex, spokesman Ron Cole said, adding that the university first chose to do so in 2004.