This is the first of a three-part series promoting domestic partnership benefits for the state of Wisconsin.

Let's put things into context.

The great state of Wisconsin is preparing to pass a new budget. The ins and outs of the budget process can be complex, long-winded, annoying and — most importantly to the general public — not sexy at all. However, students should pay particular attention to this year's budget process as it once again tries to pass "domestic partnership benefits." It might not sound sexy, but it's the most important effort students can support if they want to protect their university and their state.

Domestic partnership benefits offer couples, heterosexual or homosexual, access to long-term benefits — usually in the form of health care — traditionally only offered to heterosexual married couples.

The benefits are a popular practice and have been picked up by most major corporations, universities, state agencies… you name the major organization and they probably enjoy domestic partnership benefits. More than half of the Fortune 500 companies offer domestic partnership benefits. Every Big Ten university not in Michigan or Wisconsin offers domestic partnership benefits. Why? To remain competitive with other peer institutions. Who doesn't offer domestic partnership benefits? The great state of Wisconsin and by extension, the University of Wisconsin System.

The absence of domestic partnership benefits at UW is not a guarantee that star faculty will leave the university along with the millions of dollars they help attract. But it is a likelihood that we as a state should not be willing to position ourselves toward.

Domestic partnership benefits would cost the UW System roughly $1.3 million per year. It sounds hefty, but in actuality, it's minimal. Put that in context of the valuable faculty and administrators the UW System hires and that number shrinks. Put it in context of some of the other excesses we throw our money into and it shrinks even more. The Associated Students of Madison Bus Pass program costs students $2.2 million annually while the Student Union Initiative will draw roughly $150 million from students and private donors over the next 30 years.

In 2003, sociology professor Larry Wu left the University of Wisconsin after serving it for 15 years. He left because the university failed to offer domestic partnership benefits.

"I have to admit it is galling in some respects to be a full professor, having been at Wisconsin for about 15 years and not have the same sort of benefits … that were available to a simple staff member," Mr. Wu told The Badger Herald last March. "It was a case in which I felt I was being treated differently."

Wu's service to UW brought more than $2 million to the state of Wisconsin through federally funded grants. This argument is focusing on Wu's monetary contribution to the state, but imagine the educational value Mr. Wu and others like him bring to students and fellow faculty.

The Wisconsin State Journal reported in September the loss of Robert Carpick, a six-year UW physics professor and nanotechnology researcher. Mr. Carpick left the university for the University of Pennsylvania prior to the controversial passing of Wisconsin's ban on civil unions. Mr. Carpick also took with him $3.4 million in external grants, making the University of Pennsylvania the winner and the University of Wisconsin the loser.

"The primary factor was the lack of domestic partner benefits. This is an institution where gay and lesbian employees are not treated equally," Mr. Carpick told the Wisconsin State Journal. "Out of my own sense of self-respect and respect for my partner, we decided to take a chance on some place where we would be treated equally."

If our dear friends and fellow Wisconsinites at the state Capitol want to hold true to their promises of promoting the Wisconsin economy, the welfare of its students and its identity as a progressive state, then it's a no-brainer to promote domestic partnership benefits.

We should make Fighting Bob La Follette proud, and it's time students began to communicate with their legislators and let them know that the constituents they hear from daily are not just the most vocal but also the youth of Wisconsin who will eventually inherit Wisconsin. As 40,000 strong, we should not be left as 40,000 ignored.

Sundeep Malladi ([email protected]) is a senior majoring in political science and history.