In mid-April, the University of Missouri Board of Curators will debate whether to offer university employees domestic partner benefits -- a move that would allow LGBT employees to add their same-sex partner to their employee benefits. Already, Faculty Council resolutions have been passed supporting this measure, and students have also been vocal about their support for adding domestic partner benefits. 

Yet it will be up to the University of Missouri Board of Curators to approve the measure. Currently, the University of Missouri system is one of just a few Association of American University institutions that does not offer domestic partner benefits to its employees -- putting it in a category that certainly hurts the University's reputation, particularly when it comes to recruiting the best and brightest faculty (who might happen to be LGBT), and in sending a message to all students, staff and faculty that the university values the dignity of all people on campus, regardless of who they love.

Let's encourage the University of Missouri Board of Curators to do the right thing, and offer domestic partner benefits to its employees.