"We're interested in being able to cover all kinds of domestic partners," Williams said. That includes siblings, the elderly and heterosexual couples, she said.

"This is not simply a dollars and cents issue," Williams said. "It will mean Harvard's serious when they say 'we won't discriminate.'"

In 1989, Rathbun said, the University did not offer any resistance along moral or philosophical grounds. Only mechanical questions--"little, not-too-terrifying problems, things you could work out with the help of a tax lawyer"--got in the way, she said.

According to Rathbun, the University is concerned about adding benefits at the same time health care costs are increasing.

Rathbun said that the management's "bottom-line fear" is AIDS. And employers often "don't have the guts" to face the possibility of employees or partners with AIDS, she said.

Under the current policies, Rathbun said, her domestic partner of four years is "virtually uninsured"--covered by a "pathetic" policy that costs $100 a month and will cover only one treatment for any illness.

"Because she's virtually uncovered, any kind of preventative medicine or checking out something early, we wouldn't do, because it's going to involve a really big doctor's bill," Rathbun said. "She's reasonably young and healthy, she's only 34, but her luck isn't going to hold out forever."