Temple to offer same-sex care
Gay couples would pay premiums

By Bill Schackner

Temple University will become Pennsylvania's first public university to
offer health benefits to domestic partners of gay and heterosexual employees
through a pact with union workers under which gay couples will pay the
premiums themselves.

The move, confirmed by school officials yesterday, applies to unions
representing about 2,100 white-collar staff, faculty and graduate
students -- nearly 40 percent of Temple's full-time work force.

Temple President David Adamany cited his school's need to stay competitive
as a reason for the decision. He said offering the benefit as an option will
not require expenditure of state or university funds, and is an outgrowth of
labor-management talks as far back as the summer.

The issue of domestic partner benefits has been a volatile one in the state
Legislature, and at the University of Pittsburgh, where the school since
1996 has been defending against a lawsuit by seven gay and lesbian workers.

At least two conservative lawmakers yesterday suggested their colleagues
might punish Temple for taking the step.

"I believe the Legislature had sent a clear message that we don't support
that," said state Rep. Daryl Metcalfe, R-Cranberry. "I know I, for one, as
will a number of my colleagues, advance the position we should defund them
totally. I certainly will advance that position."

State Rep. Jeff Coleman, R-Apollo, said the Legislature likely would be
"reluctant" to support a university that would make such a move.

"I think people view a move such as Temple's as a move toward allowing same
sex marriages," he said.

Adamany, though, said the decision made sense given the number of companies
and major research universities that now offer it.

"We have to compete against the best public and private universities in the
country," Adamany said. "If we are going to compete for the very best in
scientific and technical fields, the kind of people that industry would like
to hire, we have to have a comparable benefit program."

He doubted that lawmakers would act without hearing the school's reasons,
and he expected the matter will be fully discussed as the House and Senate
Appropriations committees take up next year's budget.

Adamany said the talks were common knowledge for some time on campus and
he's aware of no public official who has thus far suggested the school not
go forward.

As a state-related university with 33,000 students, Temple relies on the
Legislature for part of its annual budget.

Temple expects as early as the end of the month to begin enrolling partners
through its outside insurer, said Martin Dorph, vice president, chief
financial officer and treasurer at Temple. Couples must meet various
partnership criteria, such as joint ownership of property or legal or
medical responsibility for one another.

"Although obviously there is a cost, this is an ability to get coverage, and
at a rate that is part of our group plan," Dorph said.

He said that could be lower in many cases than the rate an individual would
get by going directly to an insurer. Heterosexual couples meeting the
state's common law marriage requirement are typically eligible for benefits
the same as married couples

Temple reached the agreement first with the graduate student union, but the
other two unions had language in their contracts stating that if partner
benefits were offered on campus, their members should be included.

Adamany said he did not believe his school's decision would necessarily
prompt Pennsylvania's other state-related schools -- Pitt, Penn State
University and Lincoln University -- to offer similar coverage.

Pitt spokesman Robert Hill did not return a call seeking comment yesterday.

Lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union, who represent workers suing
Pitt, applauded Temple's decision and that of Drexel University, a private
campus, which also recently decided to extend partner benefits to its
workers.

"The ACLU hopes the decisions by these fine Philadelphia-based universities
will motivate Pitt and other schools in the state to follow suit," said
Witold Walczak, legal director of the Pittsburgh office of the ACLU.

At Penn State, where officials previously said the political waters were not
right to implement the benefit, a spokesman yesterday said a private
employee assistance fund endowed by an anonymous donor has allowed at least
three employees to sign up for domestic partner benefits.