U. Senate, SGA debate same-sex benefits

A year after the Board of Regents officially guaranteed same-sex spouses of university employees the same professional benefits as heterosexual couples, some university senators and student leaders are pushing to extend those privileges to same-sex domestic partners.

Last September, the University System of Maryland extended marital benefits — including taking sick, medical and family leave to care for a spouse or taking time off for the death of a spouse — to employees in same-sex marriages recognized by the state. Although system officials said they are not considering further extending those benefits to same-sex domestic partners, the University Senate's Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee voted unanimously last month to encourage the system to do so.

The recommendation may be put to a full senate vote in December, and Student Government Association legislators are joining the debate. Last week, SGA Speaker Pro Tempore Andrea Marcin proposed a resolution supporting the senate committee's recommendation. The bill is under review by the body's student affairs committee and may be brought to the floor for debate this week.

Marcin said given the overwhelming support within the SGA for legislation which failed in the General Assembly earlier this year — she expects the body to also support this issue.

"As the SGA, we believe that equality and inclusion should be extended to everyone," she said. "I personally believe students at the University of Maryland should be involved in any policy that affects our employees at the university, because we are one campus community."

But system Chancellor Brit Kirwan said there hasn't been any further discussion on the issue within the Board of Regents — the 17-member committee that oversees policy for all of the state's higher education institutions — since last year's vote on same-sex spouse benefits. Instead, he said, system administrators are waiting to see what happens when the same-sex marriage bill is reintroduced in the next legislative session in the spring.

"We have a strong indication that the same-sex marriage bill will be passed at the next session, and if that bill is passed, we believe the issues will have been addressed," Kirwan said. "Then same-sex couples can get married and have all of the benefits."

But some LGBTQA leaders on the campus said these benefits should be extended to all couples, regardless of whether they get married.

"Any person in a domestic relationship should be given these benefits, but what they've done is they've worn us down, down to the essentials," said Luke Jensen, director of the Office of LGBT Equity.

A senate vote supporting extending the benefits would not directly result in a system-wide policy change, although it would publicly state the university's position on the matter. Vincent Novara, who chairs the senate subcommittee, said there was zero contention within the committee over whether to extend these benefits to domestic partners — a question that had been discussed for about 20 years, he said.

"The EDI Committee recognizes that access to benefits for same-sex domestic partners is an issue of equity and fairness," Novara, the performing arts center's curator of special collections, wrote in an email. "The recommendations should produce a lively and thoughtful discussion. We hope that the Senate will vote to approve the final recommendations."

English professor Martha Smith said although she and her domestic partner Marilee Lindemann, also an English professor, are guaranteed benefits as they are both faculty members, they continue to fight to see those same benefits extended to their colleagues in domestic partnerships. She noted the denial of benefits has driven some faculty and staff members to move to other institutions, and added it could also keep prospective employees in domestic partnerships from coming to the university.

"People are committed to living together in a domestic partnership," Smith said. "Anybody who's enjoying that should be able to extend the right to medical leave and family leave to their partner."

While Kirwan said system officials are always open to conversation about the issue, Jensen said it's time for the regents to take the policy one step further.

"The idea is that the regents have not completed their work, so now is the time it's driven home," Jensen said. "Anywhere in the system policies where it says ‘spouses,' it should also say ‘domestic partners.'"

villanueva@umdbk.com