The SGA approved a resolution supporting the implementation of domestic partner benefits at the university, marking the first time the student group has taken a stance on the issue.
The resolution backs the efforts of the Pride Alliance in its campaign to establish equal benefits for domestic partners and legal spouses, an issue that has been ongoing since the Board of Regents denied a proposal to bring the benefits to the university more than ten years ago.
“A resolution from [the Student Government Association] is a resolution from the undergrads,” said Pride Alliance Director of Finance Louis Choporis. “They speak as the majority.”
Speaker Pro Temp of the SGA Legislator Corey Peterson said she hopes the resolution will send a message to lawmakers about the progressive generation that will be filling their seats in the future.
“Our new generation is more accepting of same-sex marriages,” she said. “[The resolution] will show lawmakers that those coming after them are more accepting.”
Other legislators said that the issue is important to recruiting and retaining faculty.
“It impacts students on various levels,” said Legislator Matt Verghese. “Domestic partner benefits would bring excellent faculty to the university, increasing the status and vigor of the university.”
Of the 62 Association of American Universities institutions, the university is one of ten that does not offer domestic partner benefits.
“A Research institution is only as good as the researchers in it,” Choporis said.
He went on to say that if the university declines because it is losing faculty, the value of a student’s degree will decline as well.
Last April, Mote presented a proposal to Chancellor Brit Kirwan that the university provide domestic partners benefits equal to those spouses of married faculty and staff receive. The President findings were based on a study submitted by the Human Resources Working Group. “In the end, to get domestic partnership [benefits], every piece of student support is something else that we can give to the Board of Regents,” said Choporis.
The Pride Alliance said standing before the regents is no longer one of its goals, but rather it is it is now one of their immediate priorities.
The resolution passed within a day of the Pride Alliance’s rally for domestic partner benefits hosted by the Pride Alliance, which will be held today at 4 p.m. in the Nyumburu Cultural Center’s amphitheater.
The vote was recounted tallied by Speaker of the Legislator Nick Chamberlain because the yeas and nays were too close to know immediately which side had won. When the legislators stood, it was revealed there were 12 in favor and three opposed. Those opposed passionately argued for complying with the values of the state.
“Our state doesn’t believe in gay marriage,” said legislator Ryan Daniels . “If they did, I’d say, ‘Go for it.'”
Daniels said he disagreed with applying the bill to opposite-sex couples as well as to same-sex ones, saying that if he were to have a “domestic partner” to whom he wasn’t married, he would want his insurance to go to his family unless he specified otherwise in his will.
“We were worried that there was going to be dissent, but we still hoped for the best,” said Pride Alliance Vice President Ron Correa.
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