KEVIN B. KLAUS/Arizona Summer Wildcat Glennda Edward (left) and public affairs and community outreach assistant director Vicki Gaubeca sit outside their house yesterday afternoon. Gaubeca said that because the university doesn't offer benefits to same-sex partners, her partner had to pay for her own dental bills.

At a time when recruiting and retaining faculty members and increasing diversity on campus have landed high on the university's list of priorities, the lack of benefits for the same-sex partners of its employees continues to be a thorn in the UA's side.

Though nationwide the UA is far from being alone in not offering domestic partner benefits, it does form part of the minority.

The UA is the only university (aside from ASU) in the PAC-10, one of 16 out of 62 members of the Association of American Universities, and one in seven out of 15 of its peer institutions to not offer domestic partner benefits.

Since the late 1990s, GLBT advocacy groups have pushed the university and the state to reform the exclusion of domestic partners from the benefits, but as of yet, nothing has changed.

Recruitment efforts hampered by policy

Joan Curry, associate professor of soil, water and environmental sciences and head of OUTReach, a networking organization for GLBT faculty, staff, and graduate students, said if she could, she would be married to her partner of nine and a half years.

But because she's a lesbian in the state of Arizona, she can't. And because she's an employee at a state university, she said she can't get the perks her heterosexual colleagues get.

Curry said she has put her partner through graduate school, and because she's from Australia she had to pay out-of-state tuition, which she said amounted to about a year's worth of her salary.

The spouses and dependents of university employees are entitled to a fifty percent tuition reduction, but domestic partners aren't.

More than the money, Curry said it was the message behind the policy that most bothered her.

"I'm not treated the same way as everyone else," Curry said. "I feel like a second-class employee."

The lack of health and dental benefits for domestic partners has also left gay and lesbian faculty members feeling excluded.

"It just doesn't seem very fair," said Vicki Gaubeca, assistant director of public affairs and community outreach in public health administration.

She said the dental coverage her partner would have been eligible for had they been heterosexual and married would have saved her some of the $5,000 she's put on her credit card in the past three months on getting root canals.

The policy has faculty, staff, and administration concerned with faculty recruitment and retention worried.

Allison Vaillancourt, executive director of Human Resources, said that in the past year, she knows of at least one to two potential faculty members who have turned down offers from the university because of the lack of domestic partner benefits.

"It makes it hard for us to recruit some really great faculty members and it results in a lot of people leaving," she said. "They get frustrated because they need health insurance for their partners."

Vaillancourt said she's been hearing from department heads advocating a policy change for the past three to five years.

Cecile McKee, a linguistics professor, said she has "seriously considered" leaving the UA because of the lack of partner benefits. Her partner of three years couldn't get health coverage when she needed it and McKee said her department and college have made the difference in keeping her at the UA.

For McKee, what the lack of domestic partner benefits means for the quality of the university faculty members is clear.

"The more ways in which you turn off or alienate or even just make mad people in different categories, the smaller the pool to choose from," said McKee.

Miranda Joseph, associate professor of women's studies, said domestic partner benefits would make her job a lot easier. A member of the Diversity Coalition, whose mission is to promote diversity on campus, Joseph said domestic partner benefits is a key component to making the UA more GLBT friendly.

"It would be easier to recruit and retain GLBT people," Joseph said. "It would improve the climate here and people would see this as a more attractive place to work."

GLBT students and faculty said they think the diversity talk is useless unless the university shows action on matters like this.

"If you're committed to diversity and are trying to get more diverse faculty members, what's the hold up?" asked Gaubeca

Likins said he's concerned the policy will keep the UA from competing with other universities who offer domestic partner benefits.

There is also concern that the inability to recruit gay and lesbian faculty members might trickle down as a problem in educating students.

Alex Grubb, a journalism junior, said though his straight professors have always been open and accepting of his sexuality, he thinks all students could benefit from more GLBT faculty members.

"It would be nice to see a gay teacher or professor," Grubb said. "I think it would maybe benefit straight students who don't really come into contact with a lot of gay people and it would show them that we're no different than they are. That we can be just as successful."

McKee said that just as minorities should be able to see people like them on campus, so should GLBT students.

"If you're a member of an underrepresented group on campus and you happen to have a professor in that category - does that matter to you? Of course it does," McKee said. "You just want to be comfortable."

Why help hasn't come

Likins said that because there is no state law that includes same-sex partners in state benefits policies, the universities can't move on the issue until the Legislature does.

"There's simply no power to act," he said. "We have no authority in the state of Arizona to provide these benefits."

He said he would favor any legislative action that would give state employees domestic partner health benefits. "Simply because that puts us in a favorable position in the marketplace."

In responding to a proposal put forth by advocates for health benefits and tuition waivers for the domestic partners, Likins suggested starting with getting domestic partners the tuition waiver, and not by using state money but by using scholarships.

Last August, Likins said that "the year that lies ahead is the year that we should attempt to get tuition benefits for domestic partners."

Likins said the university has been working on the tuition waiver for domestic partners. But, he said, "We have more questions than answers right now."

Whether or not to restrict domestic partner benefits to same-sex partners and whether the City of Tucson domestic registry would be used are issues still being discussed, he said.

"It's just exploration at this point."

But because health coverage for university employees is negotiated by the Arizona Department of Administration, the same agency that arranges health care for all state employees, the possibility of getting health benefits for domestic employees seems to be even further from adoption.

"We have no authority to grant health benefits," Likins said. "We're trying to see what we're permitted to do."

Obstacles and options

In 2003, Governor Janet Napolitano directed the ADOA to redefine who is considered a dependent so that it would include domestic partners. The step could make health benefits available to domestic partners without requiring legislative action.

Al Ecker, public informations officer for the ADOA said that before attempting to redefine the definition of dependent, approval is needed from the Attorney General's office. He said he didn't believe ADOA had the authority to change the definition.

Andrea Esquer, press secretary for the Office of the Attorney General said the request for authority is still being reviewed. She said she didn't know how long the review process would take.

While the UA waits for legislative or executive action to change who can be eligible for health insurance benefits, some say the university should be getting bolder or more resourceful in sticking up for its gay and lesbian employees.

"If the university really wanted to provide these benefits, couldn't they figure out something more creative?" asked Stuart Cohen, associate dean of research in Public Health. "It takes more political will in this state to get things done."

Cohen said Focused Excellence should give the university more authority over who is eligible for health insurance and tuition waivers.

"How can we have the power to set our tuition policies but not have the authority to offer tuition remission?" asked Cohen. "My sense is that Likins recognizes that it's an equity issue and is not opposed to providing domestic partner benefits. But he sees too many obstacles in the way."

A tri-university work group conducted a cost analysis study to determine whether or not the universities would benefit from breaking with the Arizona Department of Administration and finding their own way of insuring themselves.

Though the study wasn't prompted by concerns over the lack of health insurance benefits for domestic partners, Cathy McGonigle, a board of regent's lobbyist, said the issue did come up.

Vaillancourt from human resources said finding health insurance providers that weren't connected with ADOA could have provided the universities the flexibility they needed to define who is eligible for health insurance benefits.

The group completed the study late last year and found that sticking with ADOA would ensure lower premium increases and would overall better meet the needs of the universities, McGonigle said.

In the meantime, the university may be quietly skirting outright confrontation with state policies while competitively recruiting gay and lesbian faculty.

Cohen and Curry spoke of under-the-table negotiations that make up for the lack of domestic partner benefits in faculty member's salaries.

"For people coming from California, it's a loss of $5,000 in income," Cohen said.

While some have said this, the fact that it's done on a case-by-case basis means it's not equally available to everyone.

Miranda Joseph said though she thinks faculty members with domestic partners deserve benefits just as married couples do, she's not sure if it would help or hurt the fight for domestic partner benefits for all who are eligible.

"I don't think that some weird kind of half-baked alternative ought to be come up with," Joseph said. "It should be the policy of the state of Arizona as well as of the city and university."

But others think that-while same-sex marriage is still illegal and unacceptable in Arizona- the university should fight to make up for the state's shortcomings.

Gaubeca said the backlash to same-sex marriages in other states seems to have pushed the possibility of legalizing gay marriage even further away from reality.

"This is the time they should step forward and offer domestic partner benefits," Gaubeca said. "When marriage does come along, it won't be an issue anymore. Right now, why not just step up to the plate and show that you value all your employees."

Joseph, who said faculty members frequently tell her how important getting domestic partner benefits would be to them, said the struggle is far from over.

"GLBT faculty and staff are watching this very carefully," she said. "If we don't see some action on this we're going to see more protests, more demands."