RESOLUTION of the Faculty Senate University of Florida

AS, the University of Florida is a vibrant and diverse educational community committed to intellectual enquiry, academic freedom and human rights;

AS, each member of the University of Florida community is valued and respected regardless of an individual's gender, race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations, veterans status, or sexual orientation;

AS, the elimination of discrimination on the basis of gender, race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations and veteran status has been facilitated by the adoption of an anti discrimination policy which affirmatively expresses the University of Florida's commitment to protect members of most of the aforementioned groups from discrimination;

AS, efforts to prevent both discrimination and hate motivated violence against lesbians, gay men and bisexuals are hampered by the failure of responsible institutions to include sexual orientation in their anti discrimination policies;

AS, the University of Florida community includes members who are lesbian, gay and bisexual;

AS, the University of Florida's peer institutions, including but not limited to the University of Michigan, the University of Virginia, the University of Minnesota, the University of North Carolina, the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Wisconsin, the University of Washington, the University of Arizona, the University of Illinois, Ohio State University, the University of Kansas, Indiana University, the University of Nebraska, the University of Texas, Pennsylvania State University, the University of Maryland and Rutgers University, each has expanded their respective anti discrimination policies to include discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation;

AS, the University of Florida is located in the city of Gainesville which does have a non discrimination clause that includes sexual orientation;

AS, the student body in a referendum in the spring of 2000 voted in favor of including sexual orientation and gender identity in a non discrimination policy for the University of Florida and;

AS, the Faculty Senate of the University of Florida is empowered by the University Constitution to exercise legislative power on matters of concern to more than one college or school, and on matters of general university interest;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Faculty Senate of the University of Florida encourages the administration of the University of Florida to support the activities of State University System units to expand the State University System's non discrimination policy to include nondiscrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

back to HotTopics