After a quarter of debate about whether domestic partners are included under Ohio University's graduate student educational benefits policy, a newly proposed policy may close the loophole.
This afternoon, Graduate Student Senate President Tracy Kelly will present a petition that calls for benefit eligibility for graduate students' domestic partners to Executive Vice President and Provost Pam Benoit.
Graduate Student Senate has circulated the petition, which has more than 500 signatures from students, faculty, staff and Athens residents, for about two weeks.
We had a tremendous amount of support from a lot of different constituent groups
Kelly said. I had a lot of faith in the OU community's commitment to diversity in the support for the LGBT issue.
The petition was started after a graduate student applied for educational benefits for his domestic partner last quarter and was denied when OU said its domestic partner policies do not apply to graduate students on contract.
(Benoit) has recognized that this was an issue and all along she has been trying to find a solution said Ann Fidler, interim associate provost for strategic initiatives.
At the meeting, Benoit will propose a new policy, which would grant educational benefits to graduate students on contract and their spouses or domestic partners.
She has tried to (find a solution) in good faith
and it has taken a little while
but it's complicated
Fidler said. She has managed to come up with a pretty good solution that answers the concerns to the issues.
Kelly said that although she does not have all the fine points of the proposed new policy, it is something Graduate Student Senate would be interested in further discussing with Benoit.
I am very happy to hear that domestic partners would be included. That is one of the things that we have been pushing for a while
Kelly said. (But) I would have to have a better understanding about what the long-term implications would be.
If accepted by Graduate Student Senate, the new policy would be in place by Fall Quarter.
It looks like it has a strong green light
Fidler said. The solution to the issue has been reviewed and approved by the president
by the dean of the Graduate College ... and by the executive director of Human Resources. ... The next step we would need to do is submit this policy to the policy review committee.
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