Pitt Pressured Anew on Same-Sex Benefits

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, April 5, 2000) ( http://www.post-gazette.com/ )

By Bill Schackner, Post-Gazette Staff Writer

As faculty leaders at Carnegie Mellon University prepared for a likely vote today on a plan to offer health benefits to same-sex domestic partners of employees, protesters at the University of Pittsburgh criticized anew that school's refusal to consider the same idea.
About 70 people rallied inside Pitt's student union and urged the school to reconsider. Afterward, several dozen of them carrying signs marched around the Cathedral of Learning, stopping outside Pitt Chancellor Mark Nordenberg's office as they shouted, "If CMU gives benefits, why can't Pitt!"
Pitt spokesman Ken Service later described the protest as nothing new and reiterated the school's position that it does not discriminate.
Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge Robert Gallo is expected to rule any day on a request by Pitt to bar the city from hearing a discrimination lawsuit brought by seven current and former employees. The employees contend that Pitt violated the city's 1990 gay rights law by denying them the benefits for their gay or lesbian partners.
At Carnegie Mellon, the debate over same-sex benefits has thus far proceeded with less acrimony. The school's faculty senate plans this afternoon to consider a recommendation to start offering the benefits, a proposal made by a campus panel that began studying the issue four years ago at the request of then-President Robert Mehrabian.
The proposal, already endorsed by the group representing non-faculty employees, requires a vote by Carnegie Mellon's board of trustees.
The board could consider the proposal as soon as its meeting in May, said Don Hale, secretary to the board and vice president for university relations.
During yesterday's rally at Pitt, one of the plaintiffs in the 4-year-old lawsuit against the school said that for herself, her partner of nine years and her partner's children, Pitt's refusal to provide benefits has meant hundreds of dollars in bills for health coverage, including medications. Her partner has been on disability since being diagnosed with clinical depression and her federal disability payments do not provide enough health care, she said.
"In order to have the best health coverage, we pay out of our pocket for an additional insurance policy for her," said Ray Anne Lockard, a librarian at the Frick Fine Arts Library. "I think that's pretty sad for a university that says it wants to be the best. It is damaging our family."
Bruce Venarde, an associate history professor who is also a plaintiff, said the university is dividing the campus by picking and choosing who gets benefits. "This is everyone's university," he said.
Service said protesters are trying to use the issue to redefine marriage law in Pennsylvania. He said it's unfair to draw an analogy between Carnegie Mellon and Pitt when it comes to domestic partner benefits.
Carnegie Mellon has not been the target of a lawsuit, he said, and is a private institution, and thus is not as reliant for its budget on state legislators, who have made it plain they do not support the benefits.