UCSC Review Winter 1998

Campus Update: Health care approved for domestic partners

The university's Board of Regents, meeting in November, voted 13 to 12, with one abstention, narrowly authorizing UC President Richard C. Atkinson to extend health care benefits to the same-sex domestic partners of UC employees and certain other family members who are financially interdependent.

"This was the right decision by our Board of Regents," UCSC's chancellor, M.R.C. Greenwood, said following the vote. "It recognizes the important principle of equal compensation for equal work and will help to keep our university competitive and world class."

Atkinson brought the proposal before the Regents in July, saying that offering medical, dental, and vision care benefits to same-sex domestic partners would strengthen UC's ability to compete for faculty and staff without significantly increasing costs to the university.