Academic Staff Assembly Document #409

13 April 2009

Resolution of the UW-Madison Academic Staff Assembly Reaffirming Support for Domestic Partner Benefits to all State Employees

WHEREAS, In 1982 Wisconsin was the first state in the United States to pass a law prohibiting discrimination based on sexual orientation in housing, employment, and public accommodations; and

WHEREAS, Thousands of private employers nationwide now offer domestic partner health insurance benefits, including well over 100 employers in Wisconsin, such as Alliant Energy, American Family Insurance, CUNA Mutual Insurance Group, Kimberly Clark, Lands’ End, Oscar Mayer, and Walgreens; and

WHEREAS, All of the other institutions in the Big 10 offer domestic partner health insurance and other fringe benefits to their employees, as do nearly 300 other colleges and universities nationwide and 13 state governments, including Iowa and Illinois; and

WHEREAS, The University of Wisconsin’s failure to offer equitable benefits to all staff and faculty creates an injustice on our campus and hampers the University’s ability to recruit and retain the very best faculty, academic staff, and classified staff; and

WHEREAS, The University of Wisconsin-Madison values the contributions of all its employees, and in the progressive tradition of this state, steadfastly affirms the principle of equal compensation for equal work; and

WHEREAS, The Academic Staff Assembly has previously gone on record as supporting domestic partner eligibility for health insurance and other employment-related fringe benefits (Assembly Document #207 [1993], and Assembly Document #304a [2003]); now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED, That the Academic Staff Assembly at the University of Wisconsin-Madison reaffirms its support for the extension of health insurance and other employment-related fringe benefits to the domestic partners of all State of Wisconsin employees and their children, including the employees of the University of Wisconsin System.