Some faculty at the University of Arizona want the family of Tom Meixner, the hydrology professor who was shot and killed on campus, to have access to health benefits moving forward.
About two weeks after Meixner’s slaying on Oct. 5, the compensation-based benefits his family relied on were terminated. His widow, Kathleen Meixner, had to stop working last year due to health issues, but she is not yet eligible for Medicare.
On Monday, the UA Faculty Senate passed a resolution calling on UA President Robert Robbins, in cooperation with the UA Foundation, Arizona Board of Regents and the Arizona Legislature, to find a way to allocate “sufficient funds to pay for the Meixner family’s (Mrs. Meixner and her eligible dependent children) COBRA (or viable alternative) and retirement health care benefits until Mrs. Meixner becomes eligible for Medicare benefits and additionally for the premiums for necessary supplemental coverage to Medicare for Mrs. Meixner thereafter.”
Leila Hudson, chair of the University of Arizona Faculty, reads resolution calling for continued health coverage for family of slain hydrology professor, Tom Meixner.
Although a resolution does not have the power to carve out a budget line, faculty representatives hope it sends a clear message to UA administrators.
“We as the Faculty Senate can only do this as a symbolic gesture. We don’t have the power to enforce this or make it happen,” Leila Hudson, chair of the faculty and author of the resolution, said Monday. “I know the president wants to help the family and this might help him help them.”
Robbins, who was at the Faculty Senate meeting, said he appreciated the spirit of the resolution.
“We are limited by certain things, including gift clauses and other things, but there are discussions going on right now,” said Robbins, who added that he recently held a 2½-hour meeting with members of the hydrology department.
According to the gift clause outlined in the Arizona Constitution, public funds are not authorized to go to a private individual or entity, but there is an exception. If a court finds that the funds in question serve a public purpose, a test is then applied to see if the costs have an equal public benefit. If a court finds it does, then the transaction does not violate the gift clause.
While attorneys will have to sort out those legal questions, Robbins said he does “very much want to help the family,” and that the UA is “going to try to help all the people who were affected by this tragedy.”
The Pima County Attorney’s Office has charged Murad Dervish — a former graduate student in the hydrology department who sent disturbing messages to Meixner and other faculty members for months before the shooting — with first-degree murder in Meixner’s killing.
Dervish has pleaded not guilty and is being held in jail without bond.
