A committee supporting benefits for student domestic partners will have one more voice in their corner.
MSU's Council Of Graduate Students unanimously passed a resolution Monday to support the committee comprised of ASMSU, the Residence Halls Association and family community services senior Kendra Kearney.
ASMSU is MSU's undergraduate student government.
COGS President Jim Ciszewski said the organization's next action is to take the discussion to the administration.
"The next step is to start a dialogue between the student government and the administrators and the trustees and see if we can reach an agreement," he said.
Student organizations need to convince the MSU Board of Trustees of the need for the change, Ciszewski said.
"They are business people and they typically don't want to do something unless they can see how it benefits MSU in the long run," he said, adding the resolution could attract students to MSU that wouldn't have come otherwise.
Last August, Kearney and her partner began working to gain support for student domestic partner benefits after MSU President M. Peter McPherson overturned a decision from the anti-discrimination board supporting the benefits.
The board said sexual orientation discrimination had occurred when the couple was denied the same benefits of a heterosexual couple.
Faculty with same sex partners receive benefits for their partners while students do not.
"The university understands that gay relationships are important to receive benefits," Kearney said. "But that's only faculty, not students, who are recognized."
Kearney is responsible for getting RHA to support the benefits, and together they have been able to attract other campus groups and form a committee.
She has also worked with ASMSU Student Assembly Chairperson Matt Weingarden to form a task force specifically targeted toward answering questions on the issue.
The task force is comprised of Weingarden, RHA President Tim Liss, two members of the Alliance of Lesbian-Bi-Gay-Transgendered and Straight Ally Students, Kearney and a student not involved in any of the groups.
The group will hold a meeting Friday.
Liss said they will continue to recruit other groups' support.
McPherson's decision was disappointing, he said.
"It is a travesty that the students have to bring it to the university's attention that there has been discrimination," Liss said. "I think it's the students that are calling for a right to be wronged."
