Resident students of Saint Louis University may soon have documentation of their rights and responsibilities on campus.

The Residents’ Bill of Rights and Responsibilities will be a document expressing just those things to the residential students of SLU.

“I think that any time students want to talk about their rights and responsibilities, we should encourage it,” said Argyle Wade, director of housing.

Writing down the rights of the SLU residents is not a new idea. The idea for such a document was conceived in 1998 and a workable draft was created during the 1999-2000 academic year, according to Residence Hall Association President Mary Elizabeth Curtice.

A Students’ Bill of Rights already exists and is printed in the student handbook. From 1994 to 1999, the bill was not printed in the handbook for an unknown reason. This printing might have been the reason for the delay in finishing the document.

“I think that when the Students’ Bill of Rights was reprinted, it might have slowed down the need for a residents’ bill of rights,” said Phil Lyons, director of Student Life.

Lyons admits that he is not informed on the purpose of a separate bill of rights and responsibilities for residents. “I would hope that a lot of those things could simply be added to the existing Students’ Bill of Rights,” he said.

Last summer, Curtice and Nick Sarcone, chair of the Residential Concerns Committee, met to outline the goals of their organizations.

“As the year progressed, it became clear to us that one of the biggest challenges residents face is that when policies change or the resident breaks a rule, they don’t know what to expect and have no recourse to ensure their rights are respected,” Curtice said.

According to Curtice, the idea for a Residents’ Bill of Rights came from the RHA in 1998 as a response to the backpack searches in Griesedieck Hall.

In 1999, when a committee began to “seriously” work on the document, Curtice said that it became clear that residents have responsibilities to the communities in which they live. The title was then changed to the Residents’ Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.

A draft of the document has already been written, but it will take some time before students can actually see it.

“It needs to go through the legal department and be negotiated,” Curtice said. “Then it will need to be approved by the RHA, passed through the Senate and taken to the upper administration to have it implemented.”

Curtice hopes the bill will be passed this academic year and placed in the 2003-2004 Student Handbook and Housing contract.