THE GUILFORDIAN
Greensboro, NC
Benefits offered to domestic partners
♦After a six-year battle, Guilford offers benefits to the partners of gay and lesbian faculty members
BY FRED WILLIAMS
Staff Writer
In December of 1991, at a
faculty meeting discussing re
structuring of the benefits plan,
professor Kathy Tritschler stood
up and suggested that domestic
partners of gay and lesbian fac
ulty members should be covered
under Guilford's health and den
tal insurance. She was met with
dead silence. No more was said
about it in the meeting by any
one. She sat down.
In the following days, 24
faculty members approached or
called her to express agreement.
She continued to push for ben
efits, and asked the Benefits
Committee to explore the issue.
She heard nothing. Four years
later, in May of 1995, the Ad
ministrative Council, which
Tritschler served on, asked the
Benefits Committee to look into
it.
Faculty and staff members
have the right to purchase den
tal insurance and health insur
ance for their children and
Smoking soon to be outlawed in the caf
♦Due to health inspector's concerns, the cafeteria's smoking section will be a hazy memory after winter break
BY MAGGIE BLAIR
Staff Writer
After Christmas break, stu
dents will not be allowed to
smoke cigarettes anywhere in
the cafeteria.
Molly Martin, president of
the student Senate, said, "Basi
cally, there are no 'ifs', 'ands' or
'buts' about this."
Due to the renovations
planned for the cafeteria, the
Health Department was called
on to advise Guilford College on
the proposed changes.
"We talked it over with the
Health Department; we said,
Tell us the best way to do this,'"
said Brad McNeely, director of
Guilford Dining Services.
The Health Department re
ported that if the caf is to con
tinue to have a designated
"The more enlightened oar houses are, the more their waffs ooze ghosts. —ftafo Cafoino
spouses. Gay and lesbian profes
sors could not purchase either
one for their domestic partner.
Domestic partners are de
fined as two people, same sex or
otherwise, who share a bank ac
count, credit cards, and resi
dence. To be recognized as a do
mestic partner of someone in the
Guilford community, you must
meet various other criteria es
tablished by the college.
Benefits Committee chair
person and Human Resources di
rector Robyn Parsons states that
her committee first asked
Guilford's insurer to cover do
mestic partners in 1993 and has
asked every year since. United
Health Care replied that they
would do it, but Guilford would
have to become self-insured. Be
coming self-insured would mean
that the college would be re
sponsible for high-cost medical
expenses. This was not a risk op
tion that Guilford wanted to pur
sue, Parsons explained.
Professor Ken Cameron
came to Guilford last year. He
smoking section, more ventila
tion is needed. "To make these
changes," said McNeely, "an ex
orbitant amount of money
would have been necessary to
spend."
He recalled that renova
tions for adequate ventilation
would cost between $12,000
and $15,000.
Aside from the money fac
tor, McNeely said that within the
next five years smoking will
most likely be prohibited in all
public buildings. McNeely would
rather see that money spent on
smaller renovations like pur
chasing new chairs and refin
ishing tables, two projects al
ready completed.
The Underground will still
have a designated smoking sec
tion, though. McNeely explained
that most students at Guilford
Since 1914, but never quite like this
was excited by
Guilford's non
discrimination
policy. This
policy claims
that, among
other things,
Guilford does not
discriminate on
the basis of
sexual orienta
tion. He was told
that partners of
faculty receive all
the benefits that
spouses do, but
in reality domes
tic partners can
use the library,
go to the YMCA,
and some other
things that
spouses can do,
but medical ben
efits are denied
them.
In the fall of
1996, Tritschler, Cameron, and
other faculty members and their
partners met with Don and Britta
McNemar to request that ben
are required to be on the meal
plan for the cafeteria. However,
no students are required to eat
at The Underground.
In addition, there are two
entrances and two exits in The
Underground, so students who
wish to avoid smoky areas can
do so. The caf, on the other
hand, has only one entrance and
exit.
Most students, both smok
ers and non-smokers, say they
do not personally have an ob
jection to a smoking section of
the cafeteria. Jenny Craigie, a
sophomore non-smoker, said, "I
have asthma and have never
been affected by the smoke in
the caf, and I have even sat there
[in the smoking section] at
times."
Katherine Shrout, a sopho
more frequenter of the smoking
n a*- • n i
* I
;.v- t I
Tritschler has lobbied long and hard for these benefits.
efits be offered to domestic part
ners. Cameron was told that the
Human Resources director said
please see BENEFITS on pg. 5
section, commented, "I think
that after you eat, it is your con
stitutional right to inhale tar, to
bacco and nicotine. Freedom!
Liberty! Justice! We live in North
Carolina, for Christ's sake."
"I'd rather have a smoking
section in the caf than TVs —and
I don't even smoke and I do
watch television. And I eat, too,"
said Joel James, a sophomore
non-smoker.
Although most students do
not readily object to having a
smoking section, some students
have complained of smoke lin
gering in the cafeteria.
When asked about enforce
ment, McNeely stated, "We are
asking students to self-govern."
McNeely said that "No Smoking"
signs will be posted in the caf
eteria when students return
from Christmas vacation.
October 31, 1997