Fresh in from the tip line...

On Saturday of this week, the Board of Trustees at the University of Southern Indiana in Evansville will meet in public session at 2 pm. On their agenda, among other things, is the question of extending employee benefits to same sex couples on the faculty.

The issue has been fairly quiet but in the last three days or so, there has been an increasingly outspoken and rabid email campaign starting up about how terrible this will be if it is passed, how people will stop supporting the university with their donations, will boycott businesses , etc...all the same old stuff. My source tells me that the Trustees of the University are only getting these negative messages and no one is contacting them in support of the new policy.

The feeling is that Board members are not strongly enough in support of the policy change to support it simply because it is the right thing to so, especially at a public University, or to support it because it is critical to maintaining their competitiveness in attracting the best faculty and students in the years ahead...the Board is possibly going to feel very pressured to take the more conservative role.

You can contact USI President Ray Hoops at hoops@usi.edu or by calling 812-464-1756. The Evansville Courier-Press is running an online poll asking if the benefits should be approved. "No" is currently winning. Go vote.