🚀 go-pugleaf

***Please feel free to forward this widely to anyone who might be 
interested in supporting this effort. Thanks***


All-

Below my signature is an open letter I recently sent to Duke University 
President Nannerl O. Keohane regarding the extension of benefits to 
same-sex partners of students (mainly graduate and professional students) 
at Duke. I am asking students, student leaders and activists of all types to 
help me in this campaign by writing letters of support to President 
Keohane. Here are some facts about the situation here:

-In the winter of 1994-5, Duke University, be order of the President, 
extended spousal benefits to same-sex "spousal equivalents" (SSSEs) of 
faculty, staff, and employees;

-Opposite-sex partners are not covered under this plan, and while I agree 
that they should be, Duke is NOT going to budge on that;

-Duke has been stringing along students on this issue for over three 
years now (since before the decision on fac/staff/emps was made, even);

-Duke's Graduate and Professional Student Council voted without dissent 
to endorse the extension of SSSE benefits to student spouses;

-Duke's Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee has voted unanimously 
to extend insurance benefits to student's SSSEs for three consecutive 
years; this decision has been vetoed by the President three times;
 
-NAGPS supports the extension of such benefits (though has made no 
specific statement regarding the case at Duke);

-While faculty/staff/employee benefits are costly to the University (for 
example, the Univ. pays 90% of health insurance costs for its employees), 
student spousal benefits include only access to the Duke Student Health 
Insurance plan for student families (the student/partner would pay 100% 
of the expenses), access to on-campus recreational facilities (for a 
yearly spousal fee), and free admission to football games (Duke Football 
games are NEVER sold out, the team, to be frank, stinks). Thus, student 
spousal benefits cost the University NOTHING.


If you have further questions, feel free to contact me by email 
(mjtino@acpub.duke.edu) or phone (919-682-7257-home; 919-684-3187-lab).

President Keohane's address is:
President Nannerl O. Keohane
Box 90001
Duke University
Durham, NC 27706

Her e-mail address is: nkeohane@mail01.adm.duke.edu

I'd appreciate it if you could cc me a copy of any letter you send her. 
My address is: 
Michael James Tino
Box 3709
Duke University Medical Center
Durham NC 27710

Thanks so much for your help. Hopefully, we can convince her that 
students should not be relegated to a second-class status at Duke.

peace,
Michael

*****************************************************************************
*                          Michael James Tino                               *
*           "Obnoxious cell biology graduate student activist"              *
*                                  -The Duke Review 12/96                   *
*                                                                           *
*      Graduate Student          ______           Ombuds Coordinator        *
*      Duke  University          \    /         National Association of     *
*  Department of Cell Biology     \  /      Graduate-Professional Students  *
*    mjtino@acpub.duke.edu         \/              ombuds@nagps.org         *
* http://www.duke.edu/~mjtino/                http://www.nagps.org/NAGPS/   *
*                                                                           *
*           "i've a mind to build/ a new world/ want to play"               *
*              from "A Very Simple Wish" by Nikki Giovanni                  *
*****************************************************************************

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Subject: I've had enough - an open letter


The following is an open letter to Duke University President Nannerl O. 
Keohane. Please feel free to forward or quote it as you see fit. I 
apologize to anyone who may receive multiple copies of this letter, but 
it is quite important. I hope that, should you agree with the sentiments 
I have expressed, you will feel free to write letters of your own and 
to contact me if you would like to become more involved (or for further 
comment). My home phone number is 682-7257, and my work number is 684-3187.  
---------------------------------------------------------------------

Dear President Keohane,

The end of this academic year marks four years that both of us have been 
at Duke University; I arrived on Duke's campus as a graduate student the 
same fall that you took over its Presidency.  Many things have changed 
over the past four years, but what calls me to write today is something 
that has not.  You see, for over three years now, students (mostly 
graduate and professional ones, including myself) have lobbied for 
spousal benefits for our same-sex partners. What we have received in 
return is patronizing talks from high-level administrators, constant 
meaningless assurances that "things are being discussed," and relegation 
to a second-class status as the ONLY members of the University community 
whose same-sex partners receive no benefits whatsoever. I, for one, have 
had enough of these things.

More than two years ago, benefits were extended to same-sex partners of 
faculty, staff, and employees at Duke.  In extending those benefits, you 
showed courage and determination; many in the lesbian, gay, and bisexual  
(LGB) community at Duke read your statements at the time and felt certain 
that you not only understood the oppression that LGB people face, but 
the role of the University in propagating homophobia and heterosexism 
(and its power to end the propagation of both).  Furthermore, LGB people 
felt you were committed to addressing institutional inequity at Duke 
University. Clearly, this is not the case.

Back then, students who asked why we were not included in the 
extension of same-sex spousal equivalent (SSSE) benefits were told that 
the administration planned to offer that as a separate package. Since no 
University committees or offices (other than yours) needed to approve 
student benefits (because they cost the University no money), we were 
told that it would, in fact, be a relatively easy process. These 
assurances bought our patience, and indeed, our silence on the issue, 
and convinced students to support the faculty/staff/employee plan even 
though it left us out. 

Over the past two and one-half years, we have been given little more than 
the same assurances, which, to be frank, have worn thin.  In that time, the 
Student Health Insurance Advisory Committee has unanimously recommended 
(in three consecutive years, no less) that SSSEs be included in the Duke 
Student Health Insurance plan.  In that time, the Graduate and Professional 
Student Council, which represents a majority of Duke's students and new 
alumni, endorsed, without dissent, the extension of benefits to SSSEs of 
graduate and professional students.  The response from the administration 
has constantly been "we're discussing it."

Yesterday, in a meeting of the Student Health Insurance Committee, your 
special assistant Dr. Judith White, repeated those same empty, 
patronizing assurances.  Once again, I heard that the University was 
considering (in what amounts to nothing short of blatant homophobia) a 
"broader benefit class." Do you really think that extension of benefits 
to "household members" addresses institutional inequity on the issue of 
sexual orientation? I do not.

Madame President, we are no longer discussing abstract political theories 
here. As nice as it would be for the University to extend benefits to 
partners of graduate and professional students because "it's the right 
thing to do," that is not what motivates my struggle anymore. What we are 
now discussing are lives.  Real, honest-to-goodness human beings who need 
health insurance. People who wake up in the morning just like you and me; 
people who work two and three part-time jobs which provide no health 
benefits; people who get colds and flus, tendonitis and appendicitis and 
other maladies of various consequences; people who I care about because 
they are my friends, and because they are the partners of my friends.  
Hopefully, you'll get a chance to know some of these people too--maybe 
then you'll see why I cannot sit idly by as you and your Administration 
deny the partners of students access to health insurance.

You might wonder exactly what it is I'd like to see. What I would like is 
for you to extend spousal benefits--access to health insurance, 
recreational facilities, and sporting events--to SSSEs of students. I'd 
like it done immediately and without hesitation. I'd like it done 
without the creation of a "broad benefit class" under which I can sign up 
my mother, my roommate, the guy next door, and my cat for a card to the 
gym and a health insurance policy.

Short of that, though, I demand the answers to a few questions. If my 
status as a student at the University does not entitle me to such demands 
(which I think it does), then surely the many thousands of hours of service 
that I have given to this University as a volunteer (I need not list the 
dozens of committees, Task Forces, Boards, and working groups I have 
served on, nor the student groups I have organized and worked with), 
teacher, and researcher do. 

First, I demand that you explain to me why students have been relegated 
to second-class status.  Why are we fundamentally different beings than 
faculty, staff, and employees? Why are the hundreds of thousands of 
dollars that grants for my training and research have brought to the 
University not valued?  Why are my abilities as teacher valuable when 
your first-year students need to know how to write, but not recognized 
if I want my (theoretical) partner to have health insurance? What does 
the University's non-discrimination statement really mean in the face of 
the Administration's refusal to enact non-discriminatory policies?

Further, I demand that you and your cohort of administrators agree on 
(and make public) a timeline for a decision regarding SSSE benefits for 
students. How much longer are we going to be patronized and strung 
along? In how many more bid processes will the Student Health Insurance 
Committee be overruled in their decision to extend SSSE benefits? How 
many classes of LGB alumni will you alienate before realizing that 
current University policy is unfair and hypocritical?

I do not intend to remain silent on this issue. I intend to mobilize 
students across the University to support me. I intend to 
involve faculty, staff, and administrators in my efforts. I intend to 
contact trustees and alumni who have donated millions of dollars to 
Duke. I intend to contact leaders of local governments, congresspeople, 
leaders of national organizations, and civil rights leaders. I can only 
hope that others share my passion on this issue, as I can only hope that 
you can finally understand what Duke University's policies are doing to 
those who need them the most. Please reconsider your position on this 
issue: more than politics are at stake.

Sincerely,
Michael James Tino
PhD Candidate
Department of Cell Biology