| Coalition organizes for daily protests at WKU |
| Monday, March 22, 2010, 8:29 am | |
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This article first appeared on Friday March 19, 2010 in the Bowling Green Daily News. It features ACLU of Kentucky Board Member Patricia Minter, who has been working tirelessly with faculty and students to implement domestic partner benefits at Western KY University. The ACLU of Kentucky and our Fairness Coalition partners support these efforts and encourage all fair-minded Kentuckians to do the same.
LIZ SWITZER, The Daily News,
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“That is really too bad,” Minter said, adding that students and faculty members have begun an organized protest to the committee’s decision. Faculty and students will be engaged in nonviolent protest each day at noon in front of the Wetherby Administration Building until further notice, they said. Sam McFarland, a psychology professor who teaches an honors seminar on humans rights, is one of the protesters. “It’s really very simple,” he said in an interview today. “Western should do this because it is a matter of justice and fairness. In truth, there is an undercurrent of anti-gay feeling that motivates the committee’s decision and comments that this is about finances is a cover. Western affords what it wants to afford.” The Benefits Committee, in an 8-6 decision last month, voted down the issue for the second time since August. Tony Glisson, director of WKU’s Department of Human Resources and a member of the Benefits Committee, said the committee’s decision was based largely on the fact that Kentucky does not legally recognize same-sex marriage. Both the University Senate and SGA have passed formal resolutions in support of the benefits. During Thursday’s meeting, Minter expressed disappointment at the decision, charging that the committee is structurally flawed with too many administrative members and does not accurately represent the university’s majority of students and teachers. The makeup of the committee – 10 staff members and five faculty representatives – “shapes a lot of their decisions,” Minter told the Senate, adding that the group has “stalemated twice on this issue and the ball is largely in President Ransdell’s court.” The University Senate and Student Government Association have very clearly articulated their support of changes to the benefits policy with formal resolutions and the committee’s decision is not representative of the majority, Minter said, calling for faculty members to “let Ransdell know” if they, too, felt that the board should be restructured. Smiley says it is the clear voice of the students and faculty that the university extend the benefits and that many students view the matter as the civil rights issue of the day. Minter, a history professor, said the matter is one of basic human rights. The University of Kentucky, Northern Kentucky University and the University of Louisville all have extended same-sex benefits. Same-sex benefits are not out of keeping with practice in Kentucky and at other universities here and other benchmark institutions in other states, Minter said. Western’s University Senate last April passed a resolution in support of same-sex and unmarried couple benefits, citing the fact that more than 300 colleges and universities offer benefits to domestic partners, including 11 of WKU’s 19 benchmark institutions. In adopting the resolution, the Senate noted that domestic partner benefit programs at other Kentucky state institutions have withstood legal and political challenges. |