8 Monday, May 12, 2008 The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com BENEFITS From page 1 ruling, the University's health care policy included a provision to include employees' same-sex partners. University spokeswoman Kelly Cunning- ham said the University's poli- cy was changed to comply with the ruling. "We cannot have same-sex health insurance benefits, so we eliminated those benefits," Cunningham said. "We drafted a policy for otherwise qualified adults, which is a dependent category." The policy requires that the dependent adult has power of attorney over the employee, has lived with the employee for at least six months, shares a credit or bank account and is tfie primary beneficiary in the employee's will, life insurance or retirement plan. The University's policy has not been challenged in court and lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union of Michi- gan who represented the plain- tiffs in the case said during a conference call that the Univer- sity's policy was in compliance with the ruling. But another plaintiff, A.T. Miller, director of the Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates program at the University, said the process for getting his partner, Craig, covered under this plan was lengthy and stressful. "We had to do a number of things with our lawyers to qualify under a different sort of category under the health ben- efits," he said. "That feels far less stable and also takes criti- cal management of all kind of documents." Jay Kaplan, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan's LGBT Project, said these hur- dles are keeping institutions from drafting policies like the University's that allow same- sex couples to receive benefits without explicit provisions. "It requires people to jump through a great many hoops," Kaplan said. "Many people don't have the resources neces- sary to have that paperwork in place." Cunningham said Univer- sity officials don't expect the reworked policy to be chal- lenged. "I know that we believe all of our current benefit offerings are legal under Michigan Law," Cunningham said. "We feel that all our current benefits are in full compliance. It's not an issue for people. PURR-FECT 4 Purrmunn, a Persian cat, peeks above his awards at the 33rd Annual Cat Show Saturday. the michigan daily EARN CASH FOR your opinions. We pay $15.00-$125.00 per survey. Cash20pinion.com PROFESSIONAL WRITER SEEKS housesitting position through early Fall. Care for pets, water plants, take in mail and perform other light duties. In exchange for free or nominally inexpen- sive housing. Excelent ref. E-mail Susan at greatsioter@gmait.com THE OFFICE OF Student Publica- tions for the University of Michigan is seeking a work study student.to work spring and summer 2008. The qualified individual will provide support for the Board for Student Publications, which includes The Michigan Daily, the Gar- goyle, the Student Directory and the Michiganensian. The duties of this position include: Sending out newspaper subscriptions on a weekly basis, applying payments to advertising acconts, filing, answer- ing phones occasionally, greeting visi- tors, and possibly balancing and recon- ciling a daily cash drawer and printing reports; and, other duties assigned. Applicants should have general office/ clerical experience, some business ex- perience and/or a business major is pre- ferred, experience with Macintosh com- puters and OS X (preferred, but not re- quired), cashiering experience (helpful, but not required) and customer service experience. A working of knowledge of Microsoft Office, specifically Mi- crosoft Excel is preferred. This person MUST be DEPENDABLE AND RE- SPONSIBLE. Forward resumes to Candace Craig at cancraig@umich.edu COOPERSVILLE DENTAL UF- FICE looking for a buyer or associate. 616-837-6100. DISABLED POWER LIFTER needs assistance at the CCRB. $10/hr. Call for more info 248-321-2914. SMOKERS WANTED IN a study re- lated to quitting smoking. Choose 10- wk. nicotine patch course or $20. 734.232.0705. http://tinyurl.com/5ob2lh 095 4' BABYSITTER WANTED FOR one- year-old. Easy walk/bus from campus. 10 hours/week, flexible times. Competi- tive pay, references required. Contact Margaret at mldean@umich.edu FULL-TIME SUMMER NANNY needed for two school-age girls in our Novi home begining June 13 - end of August. Non-smoker only. Must have own transportation. $10/hour. Call 248-349-4905 after 6pm or send resume/info to tinaandpat@gmail.com PART-TIME ITALIAN speaking babysitter needed in Ann ArborB ums Park area family home for 6-year-old child. Transportaion required. Must be able to converse in Italian. E-mail mamarc@comcast.net PART-TIME SITTER for girls 12 and 15. Car and references required. Call Barb 418-4260. RICE From page 3 "We meet with the ven- dors weekly and they keep us informed on the market trends," Whiteside said. "So we started talking about rice probably about six weeks ago.' Though she said the Universi- ty doesn't have immediate plans to scale back on the more than 21,000 pounds of rice served in the dining halls every year, Whiteside said that if the prices don't go down in the future, the University would "take a look at the total menu mix and then make some changes." LOANS From page 1 other lending programs, like the Federal Direct Loan Program, in which the University partici- pates. Through the FDLP the fed- eral government lends directly to students. The Michigan Department of Treasury announced it would withdraw from FFELP because of insufficient funds last month. Michigan State University, which used to participate in FFELP, announced last week that it will now rely exclusively on FDLP. Treasury Spokesman Caleb Buhs said that other institutions in the state would likely follow Michigan State's lead and rely on FDLP exclusively. MORE ONLINE at michigandaily.com SPORTS MULTIMEDIA Women's tennis View an audio falls short in NCAA slideshow of the regionals. 33rd Annual Cat Men's golf's Bill Show at the Sports Rankin wins at the Coliseum. Maxwell. 4 I I But Buhs said students at uni- versities that donot use FFELP will benefit, too. "It will free up some capital for private lenders, which will allow - them to originate more loans," he said. "They may be able to make more loans to students in the state, which will be good." By increasing the amount of unsubsidized loans students are eligible for, Gay said the law will reduce students' dependence on costly private loans. "In increasing the unsubsi- dized loan amount that students can get, that does help," he said. "That essentially reduces the amount of private loans they need." Gay said that NASFAA also lob- bied for an increase in Pell Grants to reduce students' reliance on commercial lenders. But the law signed Wednesday didn'tinclude a raise in Pell Grant awards. "If they had done what we were recommending, then that would have created a ripple effect," Gay said. Adam Benson, press secre- tary for U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Dearborn), said in an e-mail interview that Dingell believes Congress has already increased Pell Grants sufficiently through The College Cost Reduction Act. The CCRA, signed into law last September, will increase the maximum Pell Grant award by $100 per year until 2012. University spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said officials were studying the legislation to determine what effect it could have on financial aid at the Uni- versity. 4