In yet another sign of trouble in the already-strained relationship between the University of Wisconsin System and the Republican-controlled state Legislature, the system’s Board of Regents has voted to oppose a proposed constitutional amendment barring same-sex marriage that will appear on the November ballot, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. The ballot measure is supported by both Republican lawmakers and the Republican candidate for governor, Mark Green, who is in a close contest with Gov. Jim Doyle, a Democrat.

The regents have said the proposed amendment could prevent the university system from offering domestic-partner benefits to its employees. The lack of such benefits, the regents say, has put Wisconsin at a competitive disadvantage in hiring.

“We know this will make us a target for attack,” David G. Walsh, president of the board, told the newspaper. “Mark Green and others will say we’re out of step with the mainstream. But we want to send a message to our faculty and staff. And it’s the right thing to do.”

Sure enough, Scott Fitzgerald, the state senator who wrote the amendment, sharply criticized the regents’ vote, adding that it could “jeopardize the money that comes through the Legislature to the system.”

Lawmakers and university officials have tangled in recent months over divisive social issues, such as stem-cell research (The Chronicle, November 4, 2005), and over a part-time lecturer on the Madison campus who has argued that the U.S. government orchestrated the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 (The Chronicle, July 24). Legislators also have accused the system of mismanaging employees and wasting tax dollars.