Following the SGA’s lead, the GSG unanimously endorsed a proposal at its meeting Friday that urges the University System of Maryland to offer professional benefits to same-sex domestic partners of university employees.
The measure — which pushes the system to provide same-sex domestic partners sick leave, bereavement leave and tuition remission — has now garnered support from both the graduate and undergraduate governing bodies, as well as the University Senate Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. If the Board of Regents — the 17-person governing board that sets University System of Maryland policy — eventually adopts the resolution, it will directly affect graduate assistants, allowing their domestic partners to receive the same health benefits extended to spouses of married, heterosexual graduate assistants, according to Graduate Student Government President Anna Bedford.
This time last year, the Board granted same-sex spouses equal benefits, but this measure would extend those benefits to same-sex domestic partners. While graduate assistants are not considered employees of the university, they do receive several employee benefits, such as health insurance, the resolution states. Bedford said this is an additional reason for the GSG to suport this extension.
“It is important to graduates in the sense it is to all employees,” Bedford said. “We wanted to extend this to domestic partnerships because they don’t have the right to get married in Maryland, so it’s a matter of civil rights.”
At the meeting, Anne Jorstad, a graduate research assistant, said she was concerned the qualifications for becoming a domestic partner were fairly simple, which could lead to people taking advantage of the proposal.
“I could live with my roommate for a year and qualify for this if we both pay the bills,” she said at the meeting.
However, obtaining proof of having a same-sex domestic partner is a rigorous process and requires work, according to GSG representative David Colon-Cabrera.
“Having read over the whole process that you have to do this stuff, you cannot go to a domestic partnership meeting and just say you’re living together,” Colon-Cabrera said. “They will say, ‘Can we see proof that it is really personal? Do you really love each other? … Prove that this is actually a lasting relationship.'”
SGA president Kaiyi Xie said he hopes the combined pressure from both the SGA and GSG will influence the senate and the regents to make the issue a priority.
“Hopefully at the next senate meeting we will be able to debate openly for this,” Xie said. “I’m thinking that there is quite a lot of support on this campus for a proposal on same-sex benefits, and it is just a matter of extending it through the system.”
While the Senate’s Executive Committee will vote on the resolution today, system Chancellor Brit Kirwan said the regents would have to examine the proposal for specifics before making any changes in the system. The board would consider a proposal if the university backed it first and will wait until the Maryland General Assembly revisits the same-sex marriage debate in its legislative session next year, according to Kirwan.
“The student voice always has force behind it, but I haven’t seen the proposal, so it is very hard for me to comment on it at this time,” said Kirwan. “I have personally been on record of over and over again favoring benefits for domestic partners, but the specifics do matter.”
hicks@umdbk.com
