Accorfding to Internet Media:
MILWAUKEE, WISCONSIN - Marquette President Robert A. Wild, S.J., has directed the Department of Human Resources to include coverage for “registered domestic partners” in the university’s health insurance plans, beginning with the start of the new coverage year beginning on Jan. 1, 2012.
Father Wild said it was an issue he had wrestled with the past few years. “If we are truly pastoral in our application of the Jesuit principle of cura personalis, I asked myself if I could reconcile that with denying health benefits to a couple who have legally registered their commitment to each other,” he said. He noted that the State of Wisconsin gives legal recognition both to marriage for heterosexual couples and to a registered domestic partnership for same-sex couples.
Cas Castro, director of human resources, said, while there are details that will need to be worked out, medical, dental and vision benefits currently offered to married couples and their dependents will be extended to registered domestic partners. In order to be eligible for the registry, an individual must be:
* 18 years old;
* not in a marriage or a currently registered domestic partnership recognized by the State of Wisconsin;
* share at least one “common residence” with the intended domestic partner;
* not be nearer in kin than second cousins to the intended domestic partner;
* and be a “member of the same sex” of the intended domestic partner.
The declaration of domestic partnership may be initiated by an application filed with the clerk of the county in which an individual resides.
Castro said the new provisions will be explained in detail in the benefit information employees receive each October.
In their Statement on Human Dignity and Diversity, it reads in part that Marquette "recognizes and cherishes the dignity of each individual regardless of age, culture, faith, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, language, disability or social class."
Father Wild said both student and employee groups have called for the extension of benefits, most recently in a motion passed Feb. 21 by the University Academic Senate and a recommendation approved by the Marquette University Student Government March 3. He said he had discussed his decision with trustees, including Rev. Scott Pilarz, S.J., Marquette’s incoming president.
Father Wild said it was an issue he had wrestled with the past few years. “If we are truly pastoral in our application of the Jesuit principle of cura personalis, I asked myself if I could reconcile that with denying health benefits to a couple who have legally registered their commitment to each other,” he said. He noted that the State of Wisconsin gives legal recognition both to marriage for heterosexual couples and to a registered domestic partnership for same-sex couples.
Cas Castro, director of human resources, said, while there are details that will need to be worked out, medical, dental and vision benefits currently offered to married couples and their dependents will be extended to registered domestic partners. In order to be eligible for the registry, an individual must be:
* 18 years old;
* not in a marriage or a currently registered domestic partnership recognized by the State of Wisconsin;
* share at least one “common residence” with the intended domestic partner;
* not be nearer in kin than second cousins to the intended domestic partner;
* and be a “member of the same sex” of the intended domestic partner.
The declaration of domestic partnership may be initiated by an application filed with the clerk of the county in which an individual resides.
Castro said the new provisions will be explained in detail in the benefit information employees receive each October.
In their Statement on Human Dignity and Diversity, it reads in part that Marquette "recognizes and cherishes the dignity of each individual regardless of age, culture, faith, ethnicity, race, gender, sexual orientation, language, disability or social class."
Father Wild said both student and employee groups have called for the extension of benefits, most recently in a motion passed Feb. 21 by the University Academic Senate and a recommendation approved by the Marquette University Student Government March 3. He said he had discussed his decision with trustees, including Rev. Scott Pilarz, S.J., Marquette’s incoming president.
