On Wednesday, student leaders began what could be the start of the push that is needed for MSU to join four other Big Ten schools by honoring same-sex partner benefits for students, and it's about time.

The decision made by the Residence Halls Association, with 29-0 vote and eight abstentions, put the student government on board with the notion that MSU will finally give the same rights to student domestic partners that married students enjoy.

RHA is the first MSU student government to openly support equal rights for the university's committed couples from the lesbian, bisexual, gay and transgender community. The group should be commended for taking what could be the first major step forward in seeing that MSU policies stop treating the school's LBGT community differently.

We hope ASMSU's Academic and Student assemblies and the Council of Graduate Students will join forces with RHA to see that the Board of Trustees stops allowing an unjust problem to be overlooked.

The university's judicial board already has ruled that MSU is in violation of its own ordinances by not promoting domestic partner benefits for its students. But chances are this case will prove no different than the similar case in the 1990s of domestic-partner benefits for MSU employees.

Spartans should all have equal rights within their community, period. The university's judicial panel has spoken, RHA has taken the baton and it is time for other student leaders to join the force to let university leaders know that discrimination is no longer OK at MSU.