At a special meeting of the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees May 30, the board approved funding for domestic partnership benefits. Staff members have fought for the measure for several years, both based on equality and practicality, stating offering the benefits would make UW more competitive when recruiting faculty. ASUW also approved a resolution in April, stating their support for adopting the benefits.

The approved plan will create a program under which vouchers for health insurance coverage will be offered for domestic partners of UW employees of either sex and is patterned after those at other universities.

UW administrators have been considering such a move for several years. While many staff members looked at the plan as offering equality to same-sex partners, the board saw it as a smart business move.

"UW competes nationally and internationally for faculty members," UW Provost Myron Allen said. "The range of institutions against whom we compete includes research universities and corporations that offer domestic partner benefits. More than half the companies of the Fortune 500 offer them. At the university level, 42 percent of colleges and universities surveyed by College and University Professional Association for Human Resources offer them."

Two years ago, the board of trustees directed the UW administration to retain a consultant qualified to help UW evaluate the feasibility of providing health insurance coverage for domestic partners. In July 2008, Buck Consultants delivered a report to university officials that concluded a voucher program was the most appropriate mechanism.

However, the board's vote directs that the system be implemented only when UW President Tom Buchanan determines it is fiscally feasible to do so. Currently, it is unknown when the program will be put into practice. UW recently announced sweeping budget cuts affecting target and educational programs, along with personnel.

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