By Calisha Myers Cavalier Daily Associate Editor Earlier this month two incoming University graduate students were denied on-Grounds family housing for the fall semester since the Commonwealth does not recognize same-sex marriages or domestic partners.
The graduate students, who requested not to be identified, will be beginning their studies at the Graduate School of Arts & Sciences this fall. They applied for on-Grounds housing, but were told by a University housing representative that they could not be added to the housing waitlist because the University does not rent family housing to unmarried couples and the state does not recognize same-sex marriages, according to Neil Hultgren, a representative for the students.
"U.Va. said [the two students] could search for locally available housing, and they sent them an off-Grounds listing," Hultgren said.
Mark Doherty, University Chief Housing Officer, declined to comment, advising contact with University Legal Advisors Office.
"I was not aware of the circumstance," Doherty said.
The University keeps a waitlist for family housing, which is updated each month. According to the University housing Web site, students are eligible for family housing if they live with a spouse and/or dependents and are participating in University academic programs.
The policy also states that "on an individual basis, and at the discretion of the Housing Division," single students will be considered for family housing only if space is not available for them in the regular graduate single-student housing facilities.
The two students applied for family housing rather than single student housing because had they been given single-student housing, they would have been assigned a roommate. When students or faculty are granted family housing, they are not assigned roommates, Hultgren said.
The Affirmation of Marriage Act, enacted by the Virginia General Assembly in April of 2004, explicitly prohibits civil unions, partnership contracts or other arrangements between persons of the same sex. The act also makes arrangements entered into in another state null and void in Virginia.
The University does not offer any domestic partner benefits to faculty, staff or students, said Claire Kaplan, a member of U.Va. Pride, the University's LGBT graduate student and faculty association. Both student and faculty same-sex couples have tried to obtain family memberships to University recreational facilities and have been turned down, Kaplan said.
Hultgren, also a member of U.Va. Pride, said the fact that the University does not recognize same-sex marriages or offer domestic partner benefits makes it difficult for the University to hire and retain lesbian, gay and bi-sexual faculty and graduate students, which affects everyone.
"What U.Va. claims in this situation is that it is out of their hands," Hultgren said. "I would like to see U.Va. do more to remedy the situation. We're not attracting the best faculty that we could in this situation. It devalues the quality of everyone's education"
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