Marquette U. to Offer Benefits to Employees’ Domestic Partners

Nearly a year after Marquette University was divided in controversy over its decision to hire and then reject a lesbian candidate for a deanship, the Roman Catholic institution says it will offer medical, dental, and vision benefits to the domestic partners of its employees starting next year, The Journal Sentinel, a Milwaukee newspaper, reports. In a written statement, the university’s president, the Rev. Robert A. Wild, said he had been considering extending such benefits to gay and lesbian employees for years. University officials told the newspaper that the move was not related to recent pressure from Marquette’s students and faculty members to extend the benefits. The Journal Sentinel said it could not find out if the decision on benefits was connected to a settlement last June of the dispute between Marquette and the candidate for dean, Jodi O’Brien, a scholar at Seattle University.