Published February 18, 2010

The United Student Government (USG) passed a resolution on Feb. 4 in support of providing health benefits to legally domiciled adults, which includes same-sex partners. The move comes on the heels of a Dec. 4 faculty senate meeting, in which Rev. Joseph M. McShane, S.J., president of Fordham, told senate members that he is in no position to act independently against the wishes of the archdiocese of New York. Members of the committee for equality have said that they will continue to fight for equal benefits for all faculty members.

In 2006, the university senate passed a similar resolution that would provide health benefits to “an adult who has a close personal relationship with the employee, lives with the employee, and is financially interdependent with him or her.”

Mathew Rodriguez, FCLC ’11 and secretary of USG, said that the resolution was drafted for several reasons. “First, we believe that a student’s foremost reason for attending Fordham is to obtain a good education and we believe that the current policy hinders students from obtaining the best education possible due to its oppressive, discriminatory denial of the full personhood of many of its faculty.

“Secondly, we believe it is important for the students to advocate on behalf of their faculty members in hopes of creating the tight-knit intellectual community that Fordham desires. Lastly, as the USG of a Jesuit institution, we believe it is mandatory that we make students aware of any injustices that are present on their campus,” Rodriguez said.

USG’s resolution calls for “the extension of medical benefits to legally domiciled adults,” saying that it “would only serve to benefit the University by promoting its Jesuit traditions, maintaining the University’s position as a leader among Jesuit institutions and promoting the University’s image as a beacon of tolerance, acceptance and social justice.”

At the Dec. 4 senate meeting, McShane cited the Manhattan Declaration, a statement from the Archbishop of New York in which clergy members are urged to disobey same-sex marriage laws, as a reason why he cannot currently support the senate’s resolution. McShane went on to say that he plans on discussing the matter with the Archbishop.

However, in a Sept. 20 article in New York Magazine, Archbishop Dolan spoke about the rights of same-sex couples. “It’s not that