And you get to pay for it

[F GVSU]

GVSU to offer benefits for staffer's partners

Posted: July 19, 2008 08:21 AM EDT

Updated: July 19, 2008 08:21 AM EDT

ALLENDALE, Mich.(AP)-- The trustees at Grand Valley State University have added partner benefits to employee health insurance.

They will apply to gay partners as well as any other live-in partners who are unrelated adults and have lived for at least 18 months with a faculty member or staff employee.

The university says that the change isn't simply same-sex benefits repackaged under another name, noting those are banned by law in Michigan.

Butcher says the school is recognizing people who live in the same household by extending benefits to them irrespective of their gender or marital status.

The Allendale-based school hopes that the three-year pilot program will help recruit and retain talented educators.

Now we know the real reason for the 13% tuition hike.....push the cost off on poor college kids. I hate that "school" and all the jag-offs that run it.

[hollander]

Perhaps this is one of the reasons tuition is going up the way it is? Wow, not a very good reason,@ least to me. Might they be a little out of step w the morals & feelings of the majority of the area they primarily service? I like GVSU, take classes here in Holland occassionally, but find myself a tad miffed about this one. Perhaps they could have found a better time to do this? People need a financial break & need to retrain. Raising tuition does not help that happen & fostering the opinion that part of that increase is to provide domestic partners w benefits that many others in the area in more traditional relationships do not have sends a somewhat negative message.

[Driven]

Aha! So that explains the increase in tuition.

[Taxpayer]

We also are paying for the 40% pay hike Lansing lawmakers gave themselves in 2001. That hike continues with our current lawmakers. We pay for lawmakers to have lifetime health benefits after only six years of service. We pay for the 20,000 dollar expense accounts for each of the 110 house members plus the senate.

Let's take the "parternship" out of this. Otherwise, we get into a debate about gays and lesbians,which in my opinion is not the issue.

The issue is the university is "adding" a coverage which they don't have to do. In the wake of the state's economy and their huge rate increase, they should not do it. If they "added" better dental to its employees,they still should not do it.
I don't think today any university should be adding any additional benefits. They should just hang on to what they got.