Michael Falk, an associate professor in the College of Engineering, won't return to the University in the fall. He and his partner, Matthew Scott, are moving to Maryland because of "damage that's been done to state's constitution," he said.

After Michigan's constitution was amended in 2004 to ban gay marriage and the Michigan Court of Appeals ruled that the amendment also prohibited public institutions from granting benefits to their employees' same-sex partners, Falk and Scott decided to leave the state.

Falk was one of 21 plaintiffs in a suit challenging the Court of Appeals ruling that barred employers from granting benefits like health care coverage to their employees same-sex partners.

But to Falk's disappointment, the Michigan Supreme Court upheld the ruling Wednesday.

Falk's partner currently receives health care coverage as an "otherwise qualified adult dependent" in the University's health care policy.

Before the Court of Appeals ruling, the University's health care policy included a provision to include employees' same-sex partners. University spokeswoman Kelly Cunningham said the University's policy was changed to comply with the ruling.

"We cannot have same-sex health insurance benefits, so we eliminated those benefits," Cunningham said. "We drafted a policy for otherwise qualified adults, which is a dependent category."

The policy requires that the dependent adult has power of attorney over the employee, has lived with the employee for at least six months, shares a credit or bank account and is the primary beneficiary in the employee's will, life insurance or retirement plan.

The University's policy has not been challenged in court and lawyers from the American Civil Liberties Union of Michigan who represented the plaintiffs in the case said during a conference call that the University's policy was in compliance with the ruling.

But another plaintiff, A.T. Miller, director of the Global Intercultural Experience for Undergraduates program at the University, said the process for getting his partner, Craig, covered under this plan was lengthy and stressful.

"We had to do a number of things with our lawyers to qualify under a different sort of category under the health benefits," he said. "That feels far less stable and also takes critical management of all kind of documents."

Jay Kaplan, a staff attorney for the ACLU of Michigan's LGBT Project, said these hurdles are keeping institutions from drafting policies like the University's that allow same-sex couples to receive benefits without explicit provisions.

"It requires people to jump through a great many hoops," Kaplan said. "Many people don't have the resources necessary to have that paperwork in place."

Cunningham said University officials don't expect the reworked policy to be challenged.

"I know that we believe all of our current benefit offerings are legal under Michigan Law," Cunningham said. "We feel that all our current benefits are in full compliance. It's not an issue for people.