ASUSU reaches compromise for Academic Bill of Rights
Debate over the Academic Bill of Rights and whether it has a place at Utah State University has been quelled after a compromise was reached this week.
Associated Students of USU Graduate Studies Vice President Stephanie Kukic and Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences Senator Gabe White had disagreed about whether USU should adopt the bill of rights. White proposed a resolution Fall Semester to ASUSU that passed, but Kukic re-introduced the bill to the council last week to be reconsidered.
With the compromise, Kukic won’t be looking for the resolution to be defeated, but will look for support of the modified resolution that she feels will be more effective.
“I’m excited that we can actually use the limited power that we have to get something done,” Kukic said.
The original resolution passed by ASUSU was a suggestion to the administration to open up academic freedom for students who felt their academic progress was impeded by biased faculty. The proposal after the compromise, White said, will help students become better aware of the grievance process in the student code and will have a better chance of being adopted by the administration.
“We’re going to be able to get something together that can be actually implemented,” White said. “The university will be able to look at the changes to the policy and make those changes.”
Proposals to make students more aware of their academic freedom include distributing a document to all freshman students or by requiring faculty to include a statement about student’s options on their syllabi, Kukic said.
Whatever happens, she said, needs to help students become aware of their options because as things stand now, the grievance process is buried in the student code.
“I started looking at the code and I don’t feel that even the student government is aware of the depth of student code,” she said. “Who wants to read a code? It’s 36 pages long.”
White said the compromise came after Kukic visited him in his office and the two shouted at each other.
“From the explosions and the ashes of the fight came the solution,” White said.
Kukic said she thought last week’s ASUSU meeting gave the impression that she was completely against the Academic Bill of Rights, but she said she is not.
“We can’t ignore academic freedom,” she said. “That’s the basis that universities are built on.”
Some students and faculty were concerned with some aspects of the bill of rights as it was proposed. Kukic said she, as an elected official, couldn’t ignore the complaints and worries that some students had about White’s resolution.
With the compromise, Kukic hopes students see that ASUSU is working for them.
“I hope that this shows the campus that we really are trying to get student input,” she said.
At Tuesday evening’s ASUSU meeting, Kukic asked for discussion of the resolution that had been re-introduced to be tabled for three weeks.
Webmaster pay increase
Public Relations Vice President Ashley Stolworthy asked ASUSU to support a pay raise for the webmaster of the A-Station Web site. The webmaster previously received $150 a month for about 12 hours of work each week.
Stolworthy said there were a number of projects waiting to be completed, however, that would require the webmaster to work as many as 20 hours each week. She asked for an increase of $275 a month, allowing the webmaster to make $425 a month for his work.
Projects waiting to be completed for the Web site, Stolworthy said, include a rate-your-landlord site, elections site, Robins Awards site and a Web page for the Spirit Squad.
All ASUSU officers voted in favor of the increase except Extension Vice President Tagg Archibald, who abstained.
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