CCSN Faculty Senate supports gay policy

Monday, March 22, 1999 | 11:08 a.m.

The Community College of Southern Nevada Faculty Senate voted overwhelmingly Friday to support two controversial resolutions that address the issue of sexual orientation.

One resolution urged that the faculty handbook be amended to prohibit discrimination based on an individual's sexual preference, the other resolution voiced support for a campus human right's task force that is developing a proposed domestic partnership policy.

The resolutions passed 32 to 3.

Robert Sherfield, an instructor in the English Department, pleaded with the senators to pass the resolutions.

"I am not an activist," he said. "The only thing I ever fought for was for everyone to walk on this Earth equally.

"I want to put a face on this issue, and it scares the hell out of me. But I'll be your poster child if you want me to be."

Sherfield said he was a "proud member of the CCSN faculty, but at this moment I don't have the same rights as the rest of the faculty."

Asking for the policy changes, Sherfield said "the only thing we are asking for is an equal playing field."

Since the issue came to the forefront a few weeks ago there has been widespread discussion of the topic through the campus e-mail, Sherfield said.

"Not all of the e-mail has been nice," he said.

The senate, by its lopsided vote, rejected the request by at least three senators to postpone action on the resolutions for one more meeting in order for them to be able to discuss the issue at greater length with their constituents.

The state Legislature is taking up the sexual orientation issue this session with Assembly Bill 311, which would bar job discrimination based upon one's sexual preference.

Gay and lesbian activists have said that before a domestic-partner policy can have any meaning, their jobs must be secure.

In other business at Friday's monthly meeting, Regent Steve Sisolak updated the senators on progress in the drive to make funding more equitable between southern and northern colleges and universities.

Sisolak said the effort has been "at times discouraging," but "all I want is what's fair for the kids in Southern Nevada."