Diversity in Law School

Nondiscrimination Policy

Pace University admits, and will continue to admit, students of any sex, disability, race, sexual orientation, color, and national and ethnic origin to all rights, privileges, programs, and activities generally accorded or made available to students at the school. It does not, and will not, discriminate on the basis of sex, age, disability, race, sexual orientation, color, or national and ethnic origin in administration of its education policies, admissions policies, scholarship and loan programs, and athletic and other school-administered programs.

Student Organization Contact Information

LAMBDA Law Students Association

Contact:

Professor Darren Rosenblum
Phone: 914.422.4663
E-mail: drosenblum2@law.pace.edu

Faculty Contact Information

Professor Darren Rosenblum
Phone: 914.422.4663
E-mail: drosenblum2@law.pace.edu

Professor Noa Ben-Asher
Phone: 914.422.4545
E-mail: nbenasher@law.pace.edu

Administrator Contact Information

No details provided.

Course Titles and/or Descriptions

Sexuality, Gender, and the Law

This course examines how the law addresses consensual sexuality, sexual orientation, and gender expression and identity. We will analyze the application of a number of constitutional doctrines, including the right to privacy, freedom of expression, freedom of association, church-state separation, and the rights to due process and equal protection. Our study will encompass state criminal laws against sodomy and prostitution; the law of abortion and contraception; and the treatment of gay and transgender Americans in family law (marriage, domestic partnership, adoption, and child custody), public and private employment discrimination law, military law, and education law. Primary course materials include cases and law review articles, supplemented by interdisciplinary readings in history, media, psychology, medicine, and sociology.

Domestic Partnership Benefits

Benefits eligibility and coverage will be extended to same-sex and opposite-sex domestic partners of our faculty and staff. Benefits for domestic partners will be administered in the same manner, as possible, to the benefits for legally married couples.

The following details the procedure and eligibility criteria for enrollment of domestic partners under the university's benefit programs.

Registration

To establish eligibility for university benefits of a same-sex or opposite-sex domestic partner, an affidavit, titled "Statement of Domestic Partnership," along with other evidence of relationship (e.g., lease, utility bills, etc.) must be completed by the employee and domestic partner. Copies of this affidavit, which is similar to the one being used at other universities such as Columbia, NYU, and CUNY for domestic partner registration, are available from Human Resources/Benefits.

Benefits Eligibility

Once the "Statement of Domestic Partnership" is completed and approved, the employee's domestic partner and the partner's natural or legally adopted children become eligible to apply for university benefits.

Medical/Dental Plan

As a full-time employee, you may elect to add a domestic partner and/or dependent children of a domestic partner under the "employee plus one" or "family" coverage options in the PHS POS Plan or in an HMO that enrolls domestic partners. You may also add them to either of the Aetna dental plans. If you are participating in an HMO that does not cover domestic partners, you may switch to another plan in order to effect coverage. Employee contributions will be the same as they are for employees covering spouses and dependent children.

Please note that an employee may register a domestic partner at any time. Once that registration takes place he/she must enroll the domestic partner and the domestic partner's dependent children in medical and/or dental plans within 31 days of registration. If you wait longer you may need to wait until the open enrollment period before making changes. Please see Qualifying Events for other benefit enrollment considerations outside the open enrollment period.

Tuition Remission

The same eligibility rules that apply to all employees' spouses and children will apply to registered domestic partners and their natural and adopted children. Application for on-campus staff scholarship or off-campus tuition remission benefits may be made as soon as the "Statement of Domestic Partnership" is completed and approved for benefit coverage.

Other Benefits

Employees who are not married may name anyone as a beneficiary on group life insurance or annuity accumulations. It is not necessary to register a domestic partner to name that person as a beneficiary.

Employees who retire and who, according to policy, have sufficient age and years of service to retain medical insurance in retirement, may also retain medical insurance coverage for a registered domestic partner in the same manner that such coverage is made available to spouses of retiring employees.

Pace University policy language regarding leaves of absence to care for newborn and/or adopted children or ill family members, or for purposes of death in the family will be extended to include domestic partners and children of domestic partners.

Tax Implications

The Internal Revenue Code does not recognize the tax exemption of benefits extended to domestic partners; as such, there will be certain tax consequences to the employee who enrolls a domestic partner. An employee's contributions for additional medical and/or dental coverage of a domestic partner and that person's dependent children will be deducted from pay on an after-tax basis. In the case of tuition remission for domestic partners and their children, the value of the tuition will be treated as "imputed" or direct income to the employee, as well, and taxes will be withheld based on that additional income.

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