Senators reconvened once again for the weekly Student Government Association meeting on Nov. 7, spending the majority of the meeting discussing a proposed Student Section to be added to the Civility Code. The Senate also unanimously passed a resolution thanking the Facilities department for its assistance in placing a bench and heard a presentation from Mary Stephen, Ph.D., about the Reinert Center for Teaching Excellence Programs.
In the Oct. 31 meeting, senators heard from Paaige Turner, Ph. D., and Sarah Klucker regarding the Civility in the Classroom initiative that is currently in the works. Senators met during the week since then to draft a proposal of a Student Section.
As it stands, the section includes a short preamble, detailing a desire to protect student rights at the University and also to remind students of their duty to “strive at all times to maintain the academic standards and uphold the quality expected of the Saint Louis University classroom learning environment.” This is then followed by a list of eight student rights.
The rights outline expectations that every student be given equal learning opportunity; “fair and reasonable treatment” from others in the learning community; freedom of expression in class without fear of retribution; timeliness from professors in grading; and promptly beginning and ending class.
They also hope to preserve a student’s right to know all classroom-evaluation procedures; the right to meet with his or her professor about grades or course material; privacy for students’ grades; and the right to file a grievance if the student feels his or her rights aren’t being upheld.
The proposal’s grievance policy recommends a path for students to follow when tackling problems they encounter in class with a professor or other students, which is a provision that the senators felt was lacking in the actual Civility Code. The draft currently states that students will first discuss an issue with the person causing it. Then, if is still unresolved, the student will “proceed up the chain of command” (i.e. the professor, followed by the department chair and so on) until the complaint is settled.
“It gives students a way to express their grievances in a healthy and proactive way,” Reinert Hall Senator Grant Farnsworth said.
As Farnsworth, Academic Vice President Tyler Brownfield and First Year Senator Michael Harriss were largely responsible for drafting the Student Section proposal, they handled the majority of the questions from the Senate.
The draft was derived partially from research of other universities, where the senators examined the policies that the schools already had in place.
One of the concerns raised about the proposal was that it was, as Commuter Senator Lucie Swain pointed out, eerily similar to the University of Georgia’s student rights.
Swain felt the rights as they stood were too generic and didn’t address SLU students specifically.
“I just think it should be a little more original for us,” Swain said.
In addition, some noted that many of these rights already appeared in other documents and questioned whether the creation of this document was even necessary. Others felt that the wording was too vague.
“We had to play a tricky game of trying not to step on the toes of other documents,” Brownfield said. “There is a tendency for overlap, but some of these rights help to define things better than they previously were.”
Arts and Sciences Senator Pat Devney said that the document “lack[ed] bite.”
“The Civility Code tells what happens when we violate anything,” Devney said. “[The student section] needs to lay out what happens after the grievance process [if a professor continues violating student rights].”
Commuter Senator Paul Spica suggested that the proposed draft was unnecessary.
“I think we’re making another document that is already in place,” Spica said, referring to the Statement of Rights and Responsibilities as laid out by the Student Conduct Board.
Brownfield said that many students were unaware that that list of rights even existed.
“We have to recognize that not everybody realizes what they can expect out of classes,” Brownfield said.
Spica said that students probably wouldn’t be aware of the creation of this proposal either in that case.
However, Dean of Students Scott Smith indicated that there was a possibility that the Civility in the Classroom Code could be merged with the current Code of Conduct.
Smith also said that the current student section draft would be considered in the integration discussions as well.
“It’s obvious students put a lot of time and energy into the document,” he said. “What I’ve taken from all the conversations [about Civility Codes] is there is an interest in better developing a covenant about what it means to be civil to each other.”
Also during Wednesday’s meeting:
Mary Stephen, Ph.D., gave a presentation about the Reinert Center for Teaching Excellence Programs, which is a “support center for faculty and graduate students,” she said. The center is available for faculty to get help with issues in their classes, to assist in acclimating new faculty to SLU and to aid professors into integrating technology into their classroom, among many other services. The Center also sends out newsletters four times each semester and has brought speakers to SLU to benefit professors.
A resolution to thank Facilities for the placement of a bench behind Griesedieck Hall passed unanimously. The bench will be put to use by aviation students as they wait for their shuttles to take them to Parks Airport.
