Faculty want gay benefits

The Faculty Council is planning to talk to administrators about BU’s policy against giving gay faculty members’ partners benefits, Faculty Council Chairman Herbert Voigt said after a council meeting Wednesday.

Gay faculty members’ partners currently do not receive the same benefits legally married faculty members’ spouses do, though other universities do give such benefits, Voigt said.

“The Faculty Council thinks that the issue needs to be looked into,” he said.

Voigt said council Compensation Committee Chairman Michael Lane and his committee will look into ways to take action and will discuss the issue with administrators. The council wanted to address the issue earlier, but other pressing issues prevented them from discussing the timely concern, Voigt said.

President ad interim Aram Chobanian could not be reached for comment on the matter Wednesday night.

The issue of same-sex partners receiving benefits from the university came up in October and December of 2002 and again in January of 2003, when 277 faculty and staff members signed letters asking for the benefits. The letters were sent to then-Chancellor John Silber and Board of Trustees Chairman Christopher Barreca.

“The lack of domestic partnership benefits is inherently unfair to those Boston University employees who are involved in committed, long-term relationships, yet are unable to marry,” the Oct. 5, 2002 letter read.

At the meeting, faculty members did not address recent Board of Trustees issues at length, Voigt said.

“[College of Arts and Sciences professor] James Iffland was present and asked a question regarding the process and issues on the statement about government,” Voigt said. “Nothing controversial.”

But on March 3, the Faculty Council ad-hoc Committee on Governance recommended that the Trustees allow faculty participation on the board and on matters of governance. They also encouraged the Trustees to look into greater alumni participation and a possible alumni appointment to the board, according to a statement on the Faculty Council website.

Voigt said he only briefly addressed those issues at the meeting, as the board will not review them until the next ad hoc Committee on Governance meeting.

“My council has sent a report to the board and we expected to hear from them and we haven’t heard from them yet,” Voigt said. “The official report will not be made until April 15th.”

Also at the meeting Chobanian reported on BU’s 2005 budget and alumni relations, Voigt said.

“He mentioned they had been working diligently on a 2005 budget, which [is currently] in excess of $1.5 billion dollars, which [is] bigger than that of some countries,” Voigt said.

Chobanian has traveled around the United States and met with alumni to explain BU’s governance issues, Voigt said.

“He said the [Board of Trustees’] ad-hoc Committee on Governance was working and that he enjoyed the warm relationship with the Faculty Council,” he said. “I was pleased.”

Each speaker updated the faculty on progress since the previous Faculty Assembly meeting in November. Voigt said he discussed the drastic improvements made by the ad-hoc Committee on Communications the council formed in the fall.

The faculty experienced the improvements first hand via satellite Wednesday night – professors from the Medical Campus participated in the meeting while sitting in the MED campus’ Hiebert Lounge.

“The ad-hoc Committee on Communications telecast the meeting simultaneously at the medical campus with speaker phone so they didn’t have to traipse over here in the snow,” Voigt said.

The committee also created a system for Provost Dennis Berkey to electronically post his weekly newsletter.

“Millen and her committee did an outstanding job,” he said. “We are grateful and thankful to President Chobanian and [Provost] Berkey for embracing their changes.”