Staff Congress approves recommendation

The Staff Congress approved a recommendation Dec. 13 to include sexual orientation in the University's anti-discrimination employment policy by a vote of 12 to one.

The resolution also included adding political affiliation to the anti-discrimination policy, but that half of the resolution is not what kept the vote from being unanimous.

Jody Cofer, program specialist for undergraduate research and scholarly activity, first proposed the change to the staff congress in October.

He said other Kentucky universities, like Western Kentucky, Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky, have already made similar changes in their employment policies.

"The 12-to-one vote by the Staff Congress … was a strong vote and, simply stated, the right thing to do for a minority that already receives such protection at other public universities across Kentucky," Cofer said. "I am hopeful that President Dunn and the administration will move on the recommendation."

Orville Herndon, public systems manager for the department of journalism and mass communications, cast the single vote against the recommendation.

He said he based his vote on a presentation to the Staff Congress given by Annazette McCane, director of the Office of Equal Opportunity.

"Basically, she indicated in her presentation that there had been no instances when sexual orientation had been used as discrimination in her 15 years at Murray State," Herndon said. "My standpoint is when you have someone who has done such an outstanding job at keeping the University on the straight and narrow and who feels the change is unnecessary, I feel like we should respect their professional opinion."

McCane said her comment was taken out of context.

She said she did not feel the change in policy was unnecessary.

"Someone from the meeting alluded to the fact that they were aware of a situation where someone had been discriminated against due to their sexual orientation and I replied that I was not aware of this and no one had reported an instance to my office," McCane said. "Our office is employed to enforce the Board of Regents' policy… If there's a change, we will implement it. We want to assure individuals are not discriminated against."