But for now, the Faculty's affirmative action dean, Marjorie Garber, says gay and lesbian recruitment just isn't hot topic among professors here.

"I am not sure that recruiting is an issue at the departmental level, either positively or negatively," Garber says. "It is not an issue that has been brought to attention in an affirmative action setting."

Yet Garber says the expansion of benefits available to gay and lesbian couples is a question that needs to be addressed now.

"The benefits question is a real question. It is very much worthwhile investigating," says Garber.

The issue of benefits may very well be the next target. If universities want to make their environments more open to gay or lesbian faculty, they may need to begin expanding benefits packages to cover unmarried couples, some scholars say.

But few universities at present seem to be taking the lead. While some institutions, like Yale University, extend library use and gym access to all domestic partners, most do not offer unmarried couples more extensive benefits, such as health coverage.

And health coverage seems to be the most significant issue, say officials at many institutions "It is so important you can't talk about anything else," says Yale's Director of benefits Richard L. Silva.

Gay and lesbian domestic partners in almost all cases cannot receive the medical privileges afforded married couples.

At Harvard, medical coverage is extended to spouses of faculty or staff members, but there is no like compensation for partners of gay or lesbian employees.

According to Harvard's Director of Benefits Joan Bruce, it is an issue that has been questioned by some individual faculty members, although the biggest push has come from staff members with the Harvard Union of Clerical and Technical Workers.

"There is no provision for domestic partners," says Bruce. "There is a healthcare advisory committee, and one of its agenda items is to look at the issue. The Union really had been the impetus, but there have been other individuals."

Yale, Princeton University, the University of California system and Stanford University also do not provide health benefits to partners of gay and lesbian faculty.

'No Intention to Move'

"It comes up from time to time, but my impression is that there is no intention to move from our present position," says Yale's Silva.

Spousal benefits were originally intended to aid families where one parent remained home to care for children and thus would not receive his or her own coverage, Silva says. Gay and lesbian partners are not covered, he says, because the university assumes both partners will work and that "children aren't an issue."