UpDate - Vol. 15, No. 16, Page 1
January 4, 1996
New members elected to Board of Trustees

     Three new trustees were elected and three departing trustees were
honored at the semiannual meeting of the University's Board of
Trustees, held Dec. 13 in Clayton Hall.
     Elected to six-year terms on the board were
     * Edward J. Bennett, Delaware '59 and president of Bennett
       Security Service. Bennett, who earned his bachelor of science
       degree in business administration at the University, served in
       the Delaware House of Representatives from 1976-94 and
       currently chairs the Delaware Health Education Commission;
     * John A. Krol, president and chief executive officer of the
       DuPont Co. Krol, who has served on the Business and Economics
       Visiting Committee, has been with DuPont since 1963. His two
       daughters are both UD alumnae; and
     * Homer D. Reihm, Delaware '60 and president and general manager
       of ILC Dover Inc. Reihm, who earned his bachelor of science in
       electrical engineering at UD, has served on the Athletics
       Visiting Committee and on the advisory board of the NASA Grant
       Consortium of the Bartol Research Institute. His wife and two
       daughters also are UD alumnae.

     Trustee Sally Higgins was reappointed to a term of six years.
     Departing trustees saluted with special resolutions honoring
their contributions to the board were Hudson E. Gruwell, a trustee
since 1974; James F. Kearns, a 1950 UD alumnus and trustee since 1989;
and Richard B. Taylor, a 1956 UD alumnus and trustee since 1986.
     In his report to the board, University President David P. Roselle
shared the positive results of the 1995 student opinion survey,
comparing it with results from 1990, in such areas as scholarship,
student services and the living/learning environment.
     In other action, the board established the Elizabeth Dyer
Graduate Fund as an endowment with the income to be used for the
support of graduate students in the Department of Chemistry and
Biochemistry; approved the donation of a quarter acre of University
land on the east side of South College Avenue for construction of a
train station; authorized the University administration to proceed
with several renovation and building projects; disestablished the
major in textile science; extended the University's contract with
ARAMARK Corp. through June 30, 2001; and authorized the president to
confer degrees at Winter Commencement on Jan. 6.
     At the meeting, Board Chairman Andrew B. Kirkpatrick Jr. reported
to the full board a Nov. 15 action of the Executive Committee. That
action was to decline to offer health benefits for homosexuals
cohabiting with University employees.
     The committee's resolution states that health and education
benefits are available for persons not employed by the University
"only when they occupy certain legally recognizable relationships to
employees, such as a spouse or child. The status of a spouse is
acquired by marriage licensed by the state. There is no Delaware law
which authorizes cohabiting homosexuals to achieve that status. A
contract between such persons cannot itself create that status any
more than contracts between cohabiting heterosexuals can."
     The decision of the Executive Committee was made in response to a
request for the extension of such benefits made by the American
Association of University Professors in the collective bargaining
process.