AU students are drafting a Student's Bill of Rights to fill what they see as a void in the campus community.
While studying human rights in a class recently, Sergio Garciduenas-Seas, a senior in the School of International Service, and his classmates were asked by SIS professor Mubarak Awad whether AU has a bill of rights for students.
"Nobody answered because none of us knew," Garciduenas-Seas said.
Awad proceeded to appoint Garciduenas-Seas as the leader of a class initiative to first find out if the university has such a document and if nothing was found, to draft one as a class, Garciduenas-Seas said.
Approaching the Student Advocacy Center and the Registrar's office, Garciduenas-Seas said he was directed in both cases to the "University Codes, Policies and Guidelines" listed in the student handbook. Items listed were more a code of conduct for students than a statement of entitlement or rights, Garciduenas-Seas said.
"This discovery, or lack of it, then led our class to come up with a basic list of rights for students," he said. "From there, I gathered and composed the Student's Bill of Rights. ... It is the start of something new that we all should be guaranteed and we deserve as students and as citizens."
The document, still a preliminary draft, groups rights into four categories: the right to a safe learning environment, the right to guaranteed services, the right of freedom of information and the right to quality of education.
Alfia Agish, a senior in SIS and a classmate of Garciduenas-Seas, said a students' bill of rights is important to campus culture.
"Students are entitled to know what rights they do and do not have," Agish said. "We have the right to be respected and treated as adults by university staff and faculty."
Linda Bolden-Pitcher, the university registrar, said students play a major role in the university's governance and policies are instated based largely on student's interests.
"American University is committed to providing the highest quality education in a student-centered learning environment," Bolden-Pitcher said.
Asserting the usefulness of the student handbook as an important resource, Bolden-Pitcher said "the regulations address such things as Faculty Conduct of Classes, Governance, etc., as well as the Academic Integrity Code."
In agreement with Bolden-Pitcher, Faith Leonard, assistant vice president and dean of students, said the student handbook acts a guideline and "examples include procedural protections such as those in Section II of the Student Conduct Code or grievance procedures such as those in the Discrimination and Discriminatory Harassment policy."
Also arguing that the student handbook contains several formal references student's rights, Nick Johnson, director of the Student Advocacy Center, said the handbook and other campus resources make information about rights available to students. By instating rules and standards of conduct, the university is offering protection to students from other students, Johnson said.
"Students do have rights and, although they are not all in one place, they are available for students to reference," Johnson said.
Johnson said students' rights would be stronger with a bill of rights.
"But it would probably be very difficult to create," he said.
In pursuing the document's acceptance by the university, the next step for Garciduenas-Seas and his classmates is gaining support for the bill from students on campus. He said for the university to accept the bill of student rights, students must give the bill a voice.
"If this is something that student's want, then the administration should do it," Garciduenas-Seas said. "But we need students to pressure the administration or else this won't go anywhere."
Jaclyn Boyle, a sophomore in SIS, said she thinks students need a document to which they can refer questions about rights violations. Because the rights listed in the document she and her classmates have drafted are basic for students, Boyle does not anticipate problems with its acceptance by the university.
"The rights we have written up are rights that we feel entitled to and most that we already feel we have; the university should be happy to accept this document," Boyle said.
Boyle said she does question the level of awareness students have of this issue.
"Most students probably think there already is a bill of rights and unless they feel their rights are violated, they probably won't look to find out that there in fact isn't one," Boyle said.
Garciduenas-Seas, Boyle and Agish said they trust that AU students, in recognizing the importance of their rights, will advocate for this issue.
"Not many schools have student's rights, so American should be a beacon and set an example for the rest of universities - private or public - to follow," Garciduenas-Seas said.
