The Medical College of Georgia is teaming up with the University and Georgia State University in a fight to provide domestic partners of university faculty with health insurance.

The University and other colleges under the University System of Georgia only offer health coverage to children and spouses of employees.

But with the new wave of support for the proposition from the Medical College of Georgia, unmarried partners of university employees all over the state may reap the benefits as well.

“The important thing for everyone to remember is culture is not static. It changes over time,” Bill Andrews, MCG faculty and vice chair of the academic council, said in a phone interview Tuesday.

“These days, there is a much bigger interest in recruiting and retaining faculty for campuses across the state of Georgia.”

MCG’s vote came in response to resolutions passed by the University Council at the University and the Faculty Senate at Georgia State in 2007, Adrian Childs, a music professor and chair of the benefits committee, said.

The resolution states that it is difficult for the schools to remain competitive in recruiting and retaining talented faculty and staff, especially in light of salary increases that have been below the national inflation rate for the last three fiscal years.

MCG faculty voted 2-1 in favor of the resolution, with more than 158 faculty in support, said Toni Baker, director of media relations. The results will be brought before the Board of Regents.

University President Michael Adams and Georgia State President Carl Patton took similar results to University System of Georgia administrators last year, but the proposition failed to appear on the Board of Regents meeting agenda.

The University Council was also unsuccessful in 2002 in its attempt to gain domestic partner benefits.

“With us adding our vote, maybe the Board of Regents will reconsider,” Andrews said. “But nothing is going to happen overnight.”

A university’s total cost of providing benefits generally increases by about 1 percent when additional benefits are provided for employees’ domestic partners, according to a research report prepared by Georgia State University faculty members.

The resolution does not specify whether “domestic partnership couples” includes homosexual and heterosexual couples.

Approximately 304 national and regional colleges and universities already offer these benefits, according to the resolution.