The Michigan Daily - Friday, September 9, 1994 - 3
Same-sex couples to receive employee benefits
The University is moving forward
with its promise last September to end
discrimination based on sexual orien-
tation.
The University Board of Regents
amended Bylaw 14.06 - the nondis-
crimination clause--to include sexual
orientation in the list ofcharacteristics
that the University may not use to dif-
ferentiate between individuals.
At its monthly meeting in May,
the regents endorsed a task force re-
port that outlined changes necessary
in University policy due to the bylaw.
"We do intend to fulfill our re-
sponsibility to the Board of Regents
and move ahead with the policy they
approved last September," Univer-
sity President James J. Duderstadt
said at the meeting.
The report spelled out the follow-
ing recommendations.
U Same-sex couples must docu-
ment their relationship with a "domes-
tic partnership registration."
Employment benefits will be ex-
tended to gay male or lesbian partners
of University employees.
* Same-sex couples will have the
same access to family housing as mar-
ried couples.
UFinancialaidavailableto spouses
will be extended to gay male and les-
bian partners.
ETheUniversity will grant student
residency status to same-sex relation-
ships in the same manner as married
couples.
The University is in the process of
implementing the changes. Duderstadt
said they should be complete by the
beginning of next year.
Ronni Sanlo, director of the Les-
bian, Gay, Bisexual Programs Office,
said the partners of University em-
ployees will be able to recieve benifits
as of Jan. 1.
Although many of the changes do
not affect undergraduates, Sanlo said
the addition is still important to gay
and lesbian students. Speaking of her
college experience, she said, "I would
have felt better about who I was know-
ing that I was in a place of safety and
a place of inclusiveness."
Director of Family Housing, Eric
Luskin, said the division is already
accepting applications from same-sex
couples. He does not expect the
change-over to displace any married
couples or single parents.
"We're talking about so few num-
bers. Atmost schools around the coun-
try ... it's had a very minimal impact. I
don't anticipate that being any differ-
ent here," he said.
In the residence halls, a policy
against granting room change requests
solely based on one roommate's
sexual orientation is already in place.
"We don't ask about sexual orien-
tation so I don't expect any changes in
the residence halls," said Associate
Director of Housing Archie Andrews.
"We don't acknowledge those types
of (transfer) requests."
The report and the changes that it
prompted are not universally accepted.
Regent Deane Baker (R-Ann Ar-
bor) said the comparison of same-
sex relationships to married couples
is "in opposition to 4,000 years of
nurturing and building the family as
the cornerstone of the Western civi-
lization."
A Rackham student, Jefferson Wil-
liams, also spoke against the report
before the regents meeting.
"Now the University is being asked
to extend the privilege of family hous-
ing to a new group of people - a
group whose members, we have seen,
can only be identified on the basis of
a particular aspect of their behavior-
which is still illegal under Michigan
state law," Williams said.
At the May regents meeting, Regent Deane Baker (R-Ann Arbor) expresses
his opposition to changing Bylaw 14.06 to include sexual orientation.
S UMM"ER AT A GLANcE
What happened while you were away?
By Daily Staff Reporters Lisa Dines, Ronnie Glassberg and James M. Nash
In-state tuition rate tops $5,000
appropriations to the University have
failed to rise with the rate of inflation.
In 1985-86, the state funded 51.6 per-
cent of the University's general fund,
compared to 37.3 percent for this year.
This year state appropriations to the
University increased 2.3 percent.
President James J. Duderstadt said
in-state tution will need to increase
more rapidly as state appropriations
fail to increase at the level of inflation.
"For Michigan residents, the state,
in theory, provides the discount. If the
state is unwilling to pay the discount,
we must ask people to pay a little
more," Duderstadt said.
Duderstadt said students who can-
not afford to attend the University can
benefit through increases in financial
aid. Of the funding generated by the
tuition hike, 18.3 percent will go to-
ward increasing financial aid.
"The real price - tuition minus the
average financial aid- has held steady
and has actually dropped a bit," he said.
"It's really asking parents to carry a
little more of the weight because they
aren't in terms of taxes, but someone
has to pay.".
Otherincreases will be used to boost
faculty and administrator salaries, un-
dergraduate education and for hiring
minority and female professors in ac-
cordance with recent University initia-
tives. The budget also includes a flex-
iblereservefundof$3.2million incase
funding projections fall short.
Associate Vice President for Gov-
ernmentRelations Keith Molin said he
does not see any evidence that the state
has the commitment to increase the
University's appropriations.
"The best picture of the future is
usually the past and if you take a look
at the past a serious diminishing part of
our budget is coming from the state,"
Molin said. "The commitment has to
be on the part of the state. The state has
not made the tough decisions.',
Molin said besides state appro-
priations the University can only
turn to tuition and fees, revenue
generated by research, and philan-
thropy to increase funds. The only
area the University has direct con-
trol over is tuition and fees.
State Sen. John Schwarz (R-Battle
Creek), chair of the higher education
appropriations committee, said it's dif-
ficult for the state to find to find extra
money for the state universities.
"The problem in the last six or
seven years in the state budget is that
corrections and social services have
been eating the budget alive," he said.
Schwarz said compared to other
states, Michigan is doing well in its
level of appropriations.
"'The picture nationwide is thatsome
states have made massive cuts in their
higher education budgets and we've
never cut higher education," Schwarz
said.
'U' audit discovers
misspent endowments
Debit card
to extend
beyond 'U'
Entr6e Plus, as familiar to stu-
dents as the ID cards it's encoded on,
will vanish from campus next fall in
favor of a newer form of plastic cash.
The card has been at the center of
a dispute between off-campus retail-
ers, who are currently denied its use,
and the University, which feared that
extending the debit card would vio-
late the law.
Over the summer, University offi-
cials defused the tension by offering
to make the card available to book-
stores, restaurants and other busi-
nesses off campus. The card is now
available only to merchants on Uni-
versity property, creating what critics
call an unfair monopoly.
As the program now operates, En-
tree Plus will be run as a debit-card
program, allowing students to deposit
funds into a pre-paid account. Money
is withdrawn from the account when
a cardholder makes a purchase.
While details of the revised pro-
gram remain sketchy, University of-
ficials indicate that it will be affiliated
with a bank. Merchants who want to w
join the program would contact the f:
bank.
The University, meanwhile, would
continue to reap 1-3 percent of profitsK
from transactions made with Entre
Plus. Off-campus merchants insistthat
their prices won't increase, because 9 ,
higher sales will offset the profits lost 4:
to the program.
But students may be stuck with -
the bill in the end, warned University
Controller Robert Moenart.
"What we're looking at is the com- -
mercial side as a debit function man-
aged by a bank and the campus side
managed by the University," he said. "
"Of course, any additional costs would ::
be passed on to the ultimate user, k
which is primarily students."
Off-campus merchants used a pe-
tition drive and veiled threats of legal
action to pressure the University to
expand Entre Plus. The card origi-
nated in 1983 as a transferrable meal W:
pass in residence halls.
Even after the University an-
nounced in July that Entr6e Plus will K
be expanded by next fall, the mer-
chants are not savoring their victory. F-
"Waiting another year doesn't K
exactly make me happy," said Dave K
Richard, general manager of Michi-
gan Book & Supply. Z
The new program will be tested on
a limited basis in January, University
officials said. The card may take on a ,
new name.
The successor to Entree Plus will
be modeled after the debit card pro-
gram at Florida State University, the
FSUCard. Administrators at Florida
State and the University agree that the
program offers additional conve-
niences to its users.
"It will be even more useful to
The audit spanned from July 1989
to December 1992, a time of turmoil
for the communication department.
Former chair Frank Beaver resigned
and was replaced by Neil Malamuth,
who also resigned earlier this year.
The crisis in the department did
not account for endowment spending
patterns, Smith said. "I don't think
they were very closely related."
The audit reviewed funds from
three endowments set up in the mid-
1970s: the Weber fund, the Howard
R. Marsh Professorship in Journal-
ism and the Howard R. Marsh Center
for the Study of Journalistic Perfor-
mance.
The journalism department was
dissolved in 1979 and merged with
communication. The change created
some confusion over how to spend
the endowments, Cross said. But in a
departure from custom, officials did
not contact relatives of the donor to
ask how to spend the funds, he added.
In response to the audit, the Col-
lege of LSA announced it will tighten
monitoring of endowment spending.
The process of phasing in stricter
spending restrictions was under way
before the audit. University lawyers
will determine whether expenditures
are in line with the donors' intentions,
Cross said.
The regents were notified at the
EVAN PETRIE/Daily
Debi Cain of SAPAC and Capt. Jim Smiley from DPS address a group
concerned about the serial rapist.
Serial rapist bringsn fear
to'U students, residents
As University students head home
afterexams, summer generally brings
tranquility to Ann Arbor. But the mood
changed early when police spread word
that they believe a serial rapist is living
in Ann Arbor.
On May 7, a suspected serial rap-
ist living in Ann Arbor killed an Un-
dergraduate Admissions Office em-
ployee.
Through DNA testing, police
linked this murder to three earlier
fatal, Caldwell said.
The attack on Gailbreath took place
in the afternoon in the 2100 block of
West Stadium, off of the south side of
the Farmer Jack parking lot.
Gailbreath was last seen at 1 p.m.
at Arbor Drugs. She was attacked in
a wooded area she had cut through
to return home. "My assumption is
that whatever sets him off, he's go-
ing to kill the first women. He
doesn't care if he kills his victims,"
:7 _