Resolution in Support of Equitable Treatment of Domestic Partners

WHEREAS

The employment contract negotiated by the California Faculty Association rather narrowly follows employee policies considered by the CSU's various Senates, Trustees, and Historic Precedents; and

WHEREAS

Such policies as now written are restrictively directed to benefit blood related families and relationships historically recognized in civil courts; and

WHEREAS

CSU policy and the current Collective Bargaining Agreement lack inclusive language resembling current law in the State of California and prohibiting the discrimination and exclusion of gay, lesbian and bisexual persons whose primary relationships are unfairly unrecognized, hence neglected, in employee benefits packages; and

WHEREAS

A large and growing number of prominent institutions (cf. "Personal & Professional: Benefits for Gay Couples," Chronicle of Higher Education, November 3, 1993, pg. A17, A19) including Harvard, Columbia, Yale, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Stanford, and the Universities of Minnesota and Chicago have included Domestic Partnerships in their employee benefits packages to redress the basic unfairness of exclusionary policies; be it therefore

RESOLVED

That the Academic Senate of San Francisco State University urge the California State University's Statewide Academic Senate to write and pass a policy accepting the legitimacy of Domestic Partnerships; and be it further

RESOLVED

That the Academic Senate of San Francisco State University recommend that policies established by the Faculty Affairs Committee of the California State University Statewide Academic Senate also urge the California Faculty Association to bargain for benefits packages for domestic partnerships that are equal and equitable with those now afforded civilly recognized partnerships and blood related families.