A College benefits committee failed to reach a consensus on infertility benefits for Dartmouth employees at Thursday afternoon's annual meeting of the Steering Committee of the General Faculty.
In an effort to bring Dartmouth's health benefits in line with those of peer institutions, the Council on Benefits has been trying for two years to agree on a recommendation for infertility coverage. The College's plan currently offers no benefit to individuals experiencing difficulty conceiving a baby.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Traci Nordberg, Dartmouth's chief human resources officer and a member of the Council on Benefits, noted that many of Dartmouth's peer institutions offer infertility benefits because they are required to do so by state law.
Nordberg said that there is pressure for the College to offer similar or better health coverage than its peers in order to attract talented professors and staff.
"We keep an eye on the competitive job market for higher education," she said.
Despite council members' collective desire to introduce infertility benefits, Nordberg said that the group has not been able to reach a consensus because the cost of offering coverage is unknown.
"It could be many thousands of dollars if people go multiple times," she said.
Though she was unable to estimate the number of employees that would seek infertility benefits, Nordberg noted that roughly five Dartmouth employees seek adoption benefits each year, and argued that some of these employees might be infertile couples or individuals who adopt because their infertility treatment would not be covered by the College.
Nordberg also said that there could be many more employees who would seek benefits, as employees may currently by paying for infertility treatments out of their own pockets.
Limited funding is an issue in the debate over fertility benefits, as making the choice to provide this coverage could mean cuts in areas like retirement benefits.
"It's a balancing of so many potential benefits that would be of interest to people depending on where they are in their life," Nordberg said. "If we choose this, does that mean we're trading off something else?"
Though consensus has not yet been reached, the Council on Benefits is resolved to offer something to Dartmouth employees.
"Everyone on the committee feels that it's something important, but we don't know how much to give," Nordberg said.
Nordberg said the Steering Committee's request for a recommendation by next year should provide the impetus needed to achieve consensus.
"I'm going to go back to the committee and tell them that there was interest by the Steering Committee in what level of benefit we would offer, not whether we would offer one," she said.
The Council on Libraries also delivered its annual report at the meeting, noting that Dartmouth's on-campus library system is currently running out of space.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Walter Simons, chair of the Council on Libraries and associate professor of history, said that the libraries will face space issues by 2010.
"The ideal balance [between storage space and study areas] will be disturbed in about three years," he said.
Provost Barry Scherr pointed out that the incoming storage crunch is not a pressing concern for the College.
"It's several years out before the shelves will get to the recommended maximum capacity," Scherr said in an interview with The Dartmouth.
Scherr noted that the increase in electronically published journals will also ease the College's storage needs. The library system will also cope with the increase in volumes by moving less-used materials to off-campus storage.
"It's something that we've managed to work pretty well with over the years," he said.
In its report, the Council on Graduate Studies revealed that, for the first time in recent memory, this year's incoming graduate class is predominantly female. 53 percent of the class are women.
The Steering Committee's meeting also heard annual reports from the Councils on Computing and Sponsored Activities, and approved the agenda for the General Faculty meeting on Oct. 8.
The meeting was closed to the public with the exception of a reporter from The Dartmouth and the College News Service.
