Domestic partnership issue tabled from regents' agenda

Stuck on just how to define a "domestic partner," a Board of Regents committee tabled efforts last Friday to create a written policy on partner and spouse support in hiring.

The regents' Campus Environment Committee will take another crack at the touchy issue April 6-7 in Northern Nevada.

At issue is whether to loosely define "domestic partner" or to be specific in the definition. The quandary comes just a month after a petition initiative was launched to change the state constitution to ban gay marriage.

A loose definition, besides allowing gay couples to be recognized by the schools, could allow households such as an elderly father and his adult daughter to be covered.

The crux of the domestic partner issue -- the hiring of spouses -- has come to the forefront in recent months as UNLV President Carol Harter has applied for the presidency at other universities in hopes of finding work in the same city as her husband.

She has said that any university that hires her would have to consider giving an appropriate job to her husband, Mike Harter, who currently is dean of health programs at Sacramento State University in California.

Mike Harter, who has been married nearly 40 years to Carol, can under current law and policy work at UNLV as long as he is given a proper job and does not report directly to his wife. But no appropriate positions have been found for him since she came to Nevada four years ago.

The regents have allowed the hiring of spouses of University and Community College System of Nevada personnel for years. The issue now is to make it a written policy.

A draft of the policy reads in part:

"In recognition of the growing frequency and importance of dual-career couples in the academic workplace, and to strengthen the recruitment of the most highly qualified faculty, it is the policy of the UCCSN to extend assistance to the spouse or the partner of a new hire in the pursuit of employment opportunities when a physical relocation is involved in the hire.

"The new hire shall identify the spouse or partner for whom assistance is requested."

The proposed guidelines say:

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