The executive committee of Syracuse University’s board of trustees unanimously voted to pass the employee benefits proposal and the fiscal year 2011 budget on March 11, said Kevin Quinn, vice president of public affairs.

The committee, made up of about 15 to 20 members from the Board of Trustees, met at the Lubin House, SU’s headquarters in New York City, to vote on the proposal. No changes were made between the March 3 University Senate meeting and the final passage on March 11, Quinn said.

The changes to employee benefits have sparked debates between faculty, staff and administrators since the release of the original proposal in January. On March 3, a special meeting of USen was arranged to discuss changes made to the plan. USen committees and members expressed both concern and praise for the proposal and budget at that meeting.

The new employee benefits proposal will save the university $3 million, according to a statement by Chancellor Nancy Cantor at the March 3 meeting. Most notably, the new proposal decreases the university’s contribution toward retirement benefits from 11 percent to 10 percent, provides a $1,000 offset to a tax to employees with same-sex domestic partner benefits and extends benefits to opposite-sex domestic partners.

The fiscal year 2011 budget that passed proposed a 4 percent increase in student tuition, the lowest increase in more than 40 years.