EVANSVILLE— Joining dozens of other Indiana universities, mayors and businesses, the University of Evansville president and faculty senate voiced their opposition Monday to a proposed amendment to the state constitution banning same-sex marriage, civil unions and domestic partnerships.
UE President Thomas Kazee said he had to consider whether legislation can “materially affect the university.”
“The more I considered it, the more concerned I became about the message that it was sending,” Kazee said Monday afternoon. “I think the message that the passage of (the amendment) sends is that the state of Indiana is not especially welcoming, and that those values are inconsistent with the values of the university.”
Kazee, who’s been UE president since June 2010, also said the amendment would tell the world outside of Indiana that “we are not a welcoming place, and I think that can affect us in terms of recruitment of students, faculty and staff and administrators.”
House Joint Resolution 6 would amend the Indiana constitution to state only marriages between a man and woman would be recognized as valid, and that any other type of marriage or union would not be valid or recognized.
The school joins Indiana University, Ball State University, DePauw University, Wabash College, Hanover College and Butler University. Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke also announced his opposition to the amendment recently, as has the mayors of Indianapolis, West Lafayette, Fort Wayne and South Bend. Additionally, Eli Lilly & Co. and the Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce have gone on the record as opposed to the measure.
University of Southern Indiana Faculty Senate members had planned a vote on a response to the amendment Friday, however, it was called because of inclement weather. Mary Hallock Morris, chair for both the Faculty Senate and Political Science and Public Administration Department, said the faculty senate will meet 3 p.m. Friday.
UE’s affiliation with the United Methodist Church — the third largest Christian denomination in the U.S. with 7.7 million members — will not be affected, Kazee said.
“There’s no inconsistencies in taking this position,” said Kazee, who noted DePauw University is also a Methodist-affiliated school that has voiced opposition to the amendment.
In May, many Methodist bishops offered proposals to alter or amend the church’s stance on homosexuality at their General Conference, but all were shot down.
The church accepts gay and lesbian members — and has since 1972 — however, the church’s Book of Discipline calls homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching” and the church only supports laws that “define marriage as the union of one man and one woman,” according to its website.
Click here to see the United Methodist Church’s official stance on gay marriage
Kazee said he spoke with the university’s chaplain, as well as Board of Trustee Bishop Michael J. Coyner, and that they were “very supportive of the position that I’ve taken.”
“(Opposing a state ban) is actually true to the spirit of Methodism in terms of its respect for all people,” he said.