Now-former Ohio University President Robert Glidden was given much applause and accolades during last week's Board of Trustees events. The music building was even named after the departing president. But, the gift given by the board and Glidden to the university's group of gay and lesbian employees represents a far more important tribute than a building name or a hearty round of applause --it is an important social statement with a great amount of both literal and symbolic meaning.
In a surprising move, being that it was not on the docket for the trustees meeting, the university will extend benefits to domestic partners. The partners of homosexual employees working at the university will now receive the same benefits awarded to the husbands and wives of heterosexual employees. It is fitting that the announcement comes at the end of Glidden's time at OU. Whatever his personal feelings may have been, Glidden was a public supporter of the LGBT movement. Whether this is simply the function of being the president of a liberal university in a liberal city does not really matter; at his final public appearance as the leader of OU, he and other administrators put their money where their mouths are. Strangely enough, Ohio's Defense of Marriage Act, which Glidden opposed through a university statement, may indeed have been the trigger for this announcement, as it provided for universities to make their own rules regarding domestic partner benefits.
The move carries a literal significance simply because, for lack of a better term, it allows OU to keep up with the Joneses. The Joneses being, as it so often is for OU, Miami, who approved similar benefits only hours before the OU announcement. The bottom line is that discriminatory practices do not protect anyone, and if an institution does not have the foresight to adjust to the times, they will lose out. With more generous conditions in place, OU can stand to gain better professors in search of a more progressive environment that will treat them as equals instead of driving those same people away.
But, even more importantly, the decision strikes an, albeit small, blow at the institutionalized bigotry that has infested both this state and this nation. With only about 200 colleges and universities, according to Glidden, with similar benefits, OU has seen the light earlier than most. Diversity was the buzzword during the presidential search, and instead of shutting doors, OU is helping open them. Glidden and other officials, for all of their other missteps, must be commended for seeing that.
Editorials represent the majority opinion of the editorial board. Send comments to posteditorial@ohiou.edu.
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