As a member of the Board of Visitors of William and Mary for the past seven years, I know firsthand how competitive higher education is and the challenge of recruiting and retaining the best faculty, staff and administrators. Virginia’s universities are currently handicapped by not offering the health insurance benefit proposed. Virtually all of the designated national peer group universities with whom we compete, both Ivies and public universities, do offer this benefit. And private universities in the Commonwealth, from University of Richmond to Washington and Lee to Sweet Briar, also offer this health insurance benefit. Also many of the leading employers in the Commonwealth like Altria, Newport News Shipbuilding, Carmax and Dominion Resources offer this benefit. What is being proposed is a very mainstream, commonsense, non-ideological step for our universities' and state employees. I would hope all Virginians would come together behind it. To reiterate a few key points: x Many public and private universities offer a similar health insurance benefit, including University of Alabama-Birmingham, Furman, Wake Forest, Georgetown and many others. x The policyholder, not the state or the university, will have to pay the entire cost of the insurance, contrary to what a few have incorrectly suggested. x This “other qualified adult” policy is used in a number of states which expressly prohibit same-sex marriage, just as it is in Virginia. These include the University of Louisville, the University of Michigan and the University of Alabama-Birmingham, among others. This non-ideological, practical solution to allow the Commonwealth’s universities and its state workforce compete nationally is a logical, measured step in the right direction and should be implemented as soon as possible. Suzann Matthews College of William and Mary