Breaking the Mold

Tara Moreland- Editor in Chief

2/3/12

On the front page of this week’s Monitor, you will find a story by Austin Baragary regarding the Student Bill of Rights, a document that was discovered by students last semester to be non-binding. Essentially, these rights that are intended to protect students do not have to be observed by the William Jewell College administration, therefore giving them full reign to override the provisions with no legal repercussions.

The Monitor covered this subject last semester, and it was implied that serious discussion would occur between Student Senate and the William Jewell College Board of Trustees regarding the possibility of making the Student Bill of Rights a binding contract between students and administration. One thing has become entirely clear to me: the Student Bill of Rights is useless.

It seems that the entire process of making these rights more than just empty pages of words has become irrelevant.  Student Senate has worked tirelessly to bring the document up to date and ready to be presented to Student Affairs and the William Jewell administration, but has been sent back and forth countless times to make clarifications or explain the relevancy of the Bill.

Instead of the revision of the document being a collaborative effort between Senate, the student body and the administration it has become a homework assignment for Senate and the students. I have been reflecting on why this is, and I can come to one conclusion: William Jewell administration is not ready to yield that much power to the student body. Giving them legally-binding rights would erase the gray area that now exists where student protection from administrative power is concerned.

Senate President Tori Odell, senior, commented that the President’s Cabinet has questioned why the document is relevant, citing the reason that because none of the provisions of the Bill have been violated, it is unnecessary to have the document in the first place.

A Board of Trustees member reflected these sentiments by adding, “I look at documents all the time and a document like this needs a purpose. I don’t know what’s going on that makes this necessary.”

These attitudes make it clear that the administration does not take this document seriously and is using the excuse that allegedly none of these rights have been violated to back it up. The fact that the Board of Trustees is not overseeing actively the revision of the document and has very little knowledge of it is further evidence that it is not an issue with which they are too concerned.

What makes this document necessary  is the fact that as students of this institution, we deserve to know that we have rights which cannot be violated by anyone—even the administration of the College. The fact that the Board of Trustees is resistant to ratifying the Bill, yet claims to abide by it, implies that they want to have their cake and eat it too—they can claim that they are recognizing the rights, yet can’t be held accountable legally if they do not. This is a dangerous line for the College to walk, but the repercussions of the situation will fall solely on the students. 

Sadly, the Student Bill of Rights remains a useless document which likely will not receive an endorsement from the William Jewell administration and Board of Trustees—at least not in the form of a ratification that is binding.
No, the provisions outlined in the Bill have not been violated—yet. But, if they are, students, think about what that means for you if your rights are violated. I am not sure about you, but that leaves a bad taste in my mouth.