Lecture to discuss domestic partner benefits in workplace

Following many other Fortune 500 companies, Cummins Engine Co. of Columbus, Ind., announced that it would implement domestic partner benefits for all its employees worldwide.\nTim Solso, CEO of Cummins, will speak at 7:30 p.m. today in Whittenberger Auditorium concerning domestic partner benefits.\nSolso said his company would be offering health and life insurance to not only employees and their spouses, but also domestic partners. Cummins is one of seven Indiana-based businesses that provide such benefits.\nDomestic partner benefits are getting a great deal of attention right now in the business world, which is why Kelley School of Business invited Solso to talk about the decision, said Steve Sanders, assistant to Bloomington Chancellor Kenneth Gros Louis. Sanders also helped to coordinate the event.\n"Cummins is a very important company in Indiana," Sanders said. "This is an excellent opportunity for students and faculty to learn about a cutting-edge business and social issue." \nMore than 20 percent of the Fortune 500 companies offer domestic partner benefits, according to www.hrc.org, the Human Rights Campaign, an organization that works for lesbian and gay equal rights, Web site. Providing this type of incentive not only helps to recruit more employees, but also makes a more diverse workforce, according to the Web site.\n"Cummins is committed to ensuring that we provide a workplace that is inclusive for all of our employees," said Marya Rose, a spokeswoman for Cummins. "We believe that by doing that, there is a broader benefit to the community."\nThe number of companies that offer domestic partner benefits has grown rapidly in the past few years, with more than 700 just in the past year, according to the Human Rights Campaign Web site.\n"More and more companies are recognizing that they will lose good employees over this issue," Sanders said. "Offering partner benefits is a way they can be more competitive, attracting and retaining the best workers."\nDoug Bauder, office coordinator for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender Student Support Services, agreed.\n"A lot of students, who when they graduate, are looking for entities of some kind that are going to consider their needs as a couple," he said. "Whether it is going on to graduate school or finding a job in corporate America, it is an issue at many levels."\nSome companies have found that criticism has followed the announcement of providing domestic partner benefits, Sanders said. During the lecture, Solso will also be covering how his company handled such criticism, he said.\n"Most of the criticism that we received, we received here locally," said Fiona Devan, director of corporate diversity for Cummins. "There are two phases, announcement and implementation and only during the announcement did we get criticism."\nLocally, Bloomington has offered domestic partner benefits to its employees since 1997, according to the Human Rights Web site. Although it is the only locally based company that offers these benefits, SBC, the parent company of Ameritech, which has employment opportunities around the state, also offers benefits to its employees.\nFive of the Big Ten universities also offer partner benefits, but IU does not. Sanders said any decision on such a policy would be up to the board of trustees.\nMany companies have started offering domestic partner benefits not only to recruit good employees, but also because they are good for business, which Solso will also be emphasizing.\n"Cummins has a long history of being in the forefront on some social issues," Rose said. "But the reason why we do them is we think they make good business sense."\nGLBT Student Support Services will be co-sponsoring the event because of interest expressed by its members on the issue.\n"We're very much interested in the issue of equal benefits for gay and lesbian couples," Bauder said. "It is an issue that is becoming more and more acceptable in the corporate world"