Student Council approved a resolution last night which supports efforts of the University and other state colleges and universities to offer domestic partner benefits to employees and graduate students.
Currently, such benefits are not permitted under HB 751, a 2004 state bill which says that state agencies, including the University, cannot provide benefits for unmarried couples. However, through a loose interpretation of the law, many private companies and schools in the Commonwealth are able to offer domestic partner benefits, Queer and Allied Activism Treasurer Wyatt Fore said.
Seth Croft, QuAA co-president and a resolution author, noted that the University could take steps to establish private funds in order to provide benefits to employees, even though it is prohibited by law from funding domestic benefits through its public funds.
Granting domestic partner benefits would have a wide range of effects on gay and lesbian couples who cannot marry in the Commonwealth, QuAA co-president Julianne Cook said.
Domestic partner benefits offered by the University could also impact all University students' quality of education, as these benefits would likely attract gay and lesbian faculty members to the University's faculty, Queer Student Union Vice President Blake Wilding said.
The University is one of three colleges and universities among the top 25 nationwide that does not offer domestic partner benefits to faculty members, Wilding added.
Members of the QSU and the QuAA student groups said that the support of the Student Council on the issue could spur University faculty, administrators and the Board of Visitors to take a stronger position on the issue.
"The Board of Visitors views the Student Council as a representative of the student voice," QSU President Kevin Wu said. "This [sends] a very powerful message to those who can enact change."
Croft noted that the support of the Board of Visitors would lend legitimacy to University students' lobbying efforts in Richmond.
University students have also worked to support this issue with students at other Virginia colleges and universities, including William & Mary, Virginia Tech and James Madison University, among others, Cook said.
"This is part of a larger statewide effort," Minority Rights Coalition Chair Adrienne Patton said at the Council meeting prior to the vote. "If you can join with this effort, we can really make something happen."
Cook emphasized that the combined efforts of these schools will send a strong message to the General Assembly.
In order for these students' efforts to succeed, Student Council and other student groups must push for further action, said Elliot Haspel, a former Council committee chair and fourth-year College student, at the meeting (Haspel is a former executive editor of The Cavalier Daily).
"Council has the tendency to pass legislation like this and pat themselves on the back," Haspel said. "That is not good enough; there has to be action if it is going to be sustainable."
Student Council previously supported a similar resolution two years ago; however, the resolution supported a particular bill regarding domestic partner benefits which failed to leave its committee in the General Assembly. Croft said that the new resolution has a broader base which will appeal to a larger audience.
There were no votes against the resolution and one abstention.
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