May 1, 1999 Minutes

UC San Francisco

Attending:
Sarah Archibald, San Diego
Jonathan Winters, Berkeley
Bob Anderson, Berkeley
Jessea Greeman, Berkeley
Maggie Hawkins, Riverside
John Master, Riverside
Allison Subasic, Davis
Alan Hwang, Davis
Michael Scarce, San Francisco
Chad Sanger, Santa Cruz
Joe Sampson, Santa Cruz

Absent:
Irvine
Los Angeles
National Laboratories

I. Pride Announcements:

UCSF students would like to participate in San Francisco's 6/27 Pride as part of a UC wide contingent. Berkeley is already registered and we all may join them.

Davis' Pride June 6th in Central Park, is a community event for Yolo county.

June 17th is Riverside's Pride, held at the UCR campus.

San Diego Pride parade is 6/17, all are welcome to joint the University contingent. Chancellor Dynes rode in the parade last year and is invited again.

This September, Oakland will host a Stonewall 30 celebration, more details later.

II. Resource Center Updates and news

Allison Subasic passed out the new systemwide summary although not all campuses have provided updates. It was noted that Director salaries remain very discrepant, as do programming budgets. Assistance in the form of other paid positions have increased. Some wording changes in the organization of the chart were agreed upon and Allison will distribute an updated copy when all campuses have submitted their current information.

Berkeley: The Coordinator position is posted as a SAO III and plans are to have the position in place by July 1. Lot's of good applicants including a couple of UCLGBTA scom members.

Riverside: There is now a full-time 9-month position for a secretary/clerk. The Center has been very active with several active student groups including Ni Modo ( a Latino/Chicano group), queer Asians, lavender grads and girl talk. The Center currently has two interns. An April Pride '99 event included presentations, performances and a queer film festival.

San Diego: A steering committee has been formed to develop the mission, staffing and equip the allocated for an LGBT "office". The committee will meet early in May. The Chancellor's office has allocated funds beginning 7/1/99 for a half time staff position and some programming funds for the first year.

Davis: The Center is doing well with its new Director Allison Subasic. The LGBT Resource Center will move from its current 200 sq. ft. space to the new 600 sq. ft space in the fall near the current space. The Center has a new brochure and a new group, queers of color has formed.

San Francisco: The Director position is currently 60% and ends June 15th. A decision whether to continue the position, make it permanent and/or full time has not yet been made by the Chancellor. The Assistant vice-chancellor has indicated she will fund the position at its current level for an additional year regardless. Programming events have been variably attended but if programs are tailored to health sciences turn out tends to be high. An academic program on history of LGBT issues in the health sciences is planned for Fall.

Santa Barbara: A new Resource Center coordinator has been selected; Deb Bazarsky from Miami University. UCLGBTA will send a message of welcome and inform her of future meetings, electronic lists etc.

III. Conference Year 2000 in Davis Feb. 11-13 : "Gaze into the Millennium"

Conference plans are well underway and packets outlining planning thus far were distributed. Registration costs are tentatively $15, $30, and $40 for students, staff/faculty and non-UC affiliates respectively. Planned tracks include: Multicultural, Curriculum, Political and Lifestyle. No response from HRC or NGLTF yet but Jonathan will get contact info to Allison.

The 2001 conference is planned for Santa Barbara.

IV. Sponsorship/funding issues.

This item was forwarded from the February meeting. The discussion on this item was deferred to a future meeting although it was suggested all campuses try to collect information on how people, especially students are funded to go to conferences and meetings, particularly those sponsored by UCLGBTA.

V. Retirement benefits - Domestic partner issues

Bob Anderson described the current benefit discrepancies and recent faculty action on this issue. In general there are discrepancies between spousal benefits and those received by the DP of a UC employee. These vary depending of if the benefit is received after the employee retires and dies or if the employee dies before retirement. There are also some differences depending on the dates of employment and contributions. It was decided we need to develop a fact sheet outlining the benefits facts and inequities. In 1993 the Academic Senate recommended DP retirement benefits but UCOP officials gave the impression they wanted some experience first with the health benefits and the new Regents. Now that we've had experience with the health benefits and new Regents are in place it seems likely a recommendation would be seen as favorable at this time.

The Academic Council asked the Committee on Faculty Welfare to author a report on the issue. The draft is done and it is expected to be adopted by the Council and sent to UCOP as early as this summer. UCLGBTA needs to bring up the issue President Atkinson. We also need to clarify which committee of the Board of Regents will be responsible (finance?) and who is on the committee for the coming year. Chancellors need to be informed and lobbied. The question of opposite sex partners and adult dependents was raised. It is expected the Faculty Senate will recommend opposite sex partners receive DP benefits but adult dependents is a much more complicated and possibly costly issue.

VI. Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA)

Federal and State law allow for 90 days a year for an employee to take care of a sick relative. Although not required, this can be extended by the employer to include DPs, and UC's policy currently is not explicit with respect to domestic partners. Therefore, it may be difficult for some employees to access this benefit or even know it's available to them or their children. There are separate academic and staff policies with respect to FMLA and the staff policy needs to be addresses at UCOP level.

Regarding the faculty policy, the Academic Council recommended a change in the wording that stated specifically "domestic partner" and "children of the domestic partner." General Council came back with changed wording to state family members and then also included would be domestic partners. (i.e. we aren't family members.) They argued that there was some legal interest in the definition of family, but Bob A. pointed out in response how varied indeed the description of family is in many statutes. His recommendation was to either include DPs in the "family" list or drop family altogether.

Bob asked how important this change would be and if we pursue the implementation might be delayed. UCLGBTA needs to contact someone from UCOP, especially on the staff policy and again talk to the Chancellors about this issue.

VII. DP housing issues

Now that it's been a year and a half since the housing was separated from health benefits and Regents have changed (the reason we were told it was on hold), it is time to revisit this issue.

Options: UCOP authorizes implementation and brings to Regents as a point of information; a formal proposal is brought forward to the Regents; let the Chancellors just do it individually on their own. UCLGBTA will contact Chancellors, collect stories of people wanting housing etc. and talk to UCOP.

VIII. Legislative Issues

Maggie Hawkins updated the group on the Wisconsin case, soon to go to the Supreme Court, a Christian student group that is suing the University for student fees going to groups they were "ideologically opposed to", including queers, and feminists among others. This may have some impact on UC in the future but it is unclear at this time. Maggie will follow-up with UCSA for more info.

The Dignity for all Youth initiative is about to go to the full Assembly in California. UCLGBTA chairs will send a letter of support.

AB1001: Non-discrimination in housing and employment. Chairs sent a letter to the Speaker.

Knight Initiative. CAPE is following this and we will keep posted on the issue. No action at this time.

IX. Election of UCLGBTA officers

There were two nominations for Secretary: Robert Imada of Santa Cruz and John White of San Diego. Vote held by secret ballot: Robert Imada 4 and John White 6. John White is the new secretary.

Vice Chair: No nominees. The seat remains empty and can be filled at the next meeting. Send in your nominations. Co-chair Sarah Archibald stepped down. Jonathan Winters remains Chair.

X. Fall Steering Committee Meeting.

Most people present are planning to attend the NGLTF Creating Change Conference in Oakland (Nov. 10-14) so it was proposed we have the fall steering committee meeting at that time. Pros: save on travel, encourage people to attend NGLTF; Cons: another northern meeting (and winter is Davis), can we have a focused meeting?

The decision of those present was to have the meeting in Oakland or Berkeley at that time IF the Creating Change schedule permits. The schedule is not out yet but it was thought Friday morning is usually free and we could have a half day meeting. We'll revisit by e-mail as soon as the schedule is published. If we don't go north Riverside will host the fall scom meeting and the spring scom meeting will be held in the south.

XI. Transgender rights and policies.

We discussed adding gender identity to the University non-discrimination policy. Steering committee members were asked to check in with the trans communities on their campuses for response, wording etc. and plans are to bring the issue to the President.

In summary, as a result of this meeting it was recommended we 1) talk to the Chancellors at each campus and 2) contact the Office of the President soon and request a meeting to discuss the following:

DP Retirement Benefits
DP Housing Benefits
Family Medical Leave Policy
Changing the non-discrimination statement to include gender identity