More than 120 students, alumni and concerned citizens have signed a petition asking Loyola to end what they say is a discriminatory membership policy at the Recreational Sports Complex.

Ecoee Rooney, A’92, a graduate nursing student, said she applied in October for her partner to have a student family membership at the Rec Plex. After the application process, Rooney said her partner was denied membership, because her partner is also a woman.

“I almost withdrew from school,” Rooney said. “I thought, ‘What am I doing giving money to a school that discriminates against me?'”

Rooney said she received an e-mail from Vice President of Student Affairs James Eiseman that said, “Loyola University New Orleans, being a Jesuit, Catholic institution, chooses to offer certain benefits and privileges to married couples as defined by the Church and by the laws of the State of Louisiana.”

The Catholic Church does not recognize same-sex partners

as spouses, and the state

permits marriage only between

heterosexual couples.

Rooney said, “It’s a matter of social justice.”

She said that she and her partner have been together for eight years and had a commitment ceremony six years ago – both of which lead Rooney to define her partner as

her spouse.

“Without her, I wouldn’t be able to go to school,” Rooney said. “I want her to be able to come work out with me.”

Associate professor and chairman of sociology Edward McCaughan said he had the same experience a few years ago when he tried to have his partner enrolled as a family member at the Rec Plex.

His application was denied, and McCaughan said he was offered “no explanation of why.”

McCaughan decided not to pursue the issue.

“I encourage the organizers to take it to the faculty and staff, beyond just the students,” McCaughan said.

Loyola’s official policy on discrimination says that the school “has fully supported and fostered in its educational programs, admissions, employment practices and in the activities it operates the policy of not discriminating on the basis of age, color, disability, national origin, race, religion, sex/gender or sexual orientation.”

English literature senior Stephanie Margherio, secretary of Loyola’s Amnesty International chapter, said she decided to write a petition to the administration after Rooney approached her about the problem at an Amnesty meeting.

“We thought we would do some symbolic protest,” Margherio said.

After circulating the petition through several listserves, Margherio heard from Henry Clayton, who helped develop a

Web site sponsored by JustNewOrleans.com.

The site includes links to electronically add a name to the petition, and options to send letters to administrators. It was accessible as of Monday night, Margherio said, and by Wednesday morning more than 120 people had signed the petition and about 40 more people sent letters.

“We were overwhelmed by the response,” Margherio said.

When asked about the petition Wednesday morning, Eiseman said he’d “heard of no such thing.”