2008 Woodie Awards
Staff Editorial: What are they smoking?
Our View: The University Senate needs to change the double standard by which faculty, staff and students are evaluated.
Staff Editorial
Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: Opinion
Let it be known: Getting caught smoking pot on the campus can seriously affect a student's ability to influence policy on the campus. So says the University Senate's membership policy, which was invoked last week in barring one of the senate's most outspoken and active student members, Stacia Cosner.
Apparently, no one really bothered to pay attention to the senate's membership rules until Cosner started making waves. Only then was her disciplinary record examined, turning up a previous marijuana violation that bars her from serving. Strange coincidence? Probably. We'd like to give whoever discovered the oversight the benefit of the doubt. What we won't stand for, however, is the fact that a horrendous double standard exists in the senate's membership rules.
According to our reading of the rules, undergraduate and graduate students may not serve if they aren't in good academic or disciplinary standing with the university. Fine. Makes sense. But oddly enough, there's no similar rule applied to faculty or staff senate members. We recognize the same academic and behavioral rules that apply to students don't necessarily apply to faculty and staff. But is that to say faculty and staff aren't subject to disciplinary action at all? If that's true, one wonders what effect grievance policies and academic ethical standards have on the faculty and staff of this university.
Make no mistake: We take no issue with the rule as it stands now. And we don't always agree with Cosner's outspoken agenda. However, she deserves credit for stepping into a thankless position where she could buck the status quo and force influential policy-makers to tell her just why her ideas wouldn't work. Simply put, Cosner is an activist's activist, and it's fairly uncommon to see any undergraduate students take the risks Cosner has to pursue change. But sadly, her risk-taking has made her the rare student who has been unceremoniously ousted from her position after doing so.
Cosner's predicament isn't troubling so much only because she's been outspoken and the senate will lose an active member. The red flags should be going up when one considers that student records and personnel records are offered similar protection under the law. Yet when it comes to serving on the senate, personnel records are closed and student records are apparently ripe for the picking through.
Apparently, no one really bothered to pay attention to the senate's membership rules until Cosner started making waves. Only then was her disciplinary record examined, turning up a previous marijuana violation that bars her from serving. Strange coincidence? Probably. We'd like to give whoever discovered the oversight the benefit of the doubt. What we won't stand for, however, is the fact that a horrendous double standard exists in the senate's membership rules.
According to our reading of the rules, undergraduate and graduate students may not serve if they aren't in good academic or disciplinary standing with the university. Fine. Makes sense. But oddly enough, there's no similar rule applied to faculty or staff senate members. We recognize the same academic and behavioral rules that apply to students don't necessarily apply to faculty and staff. But is that to say faculty and staff aren't subject to disciplinary action at all? If that's true, one wonders what effect grievance policies and academic ethical standards have on the faculty and staff of this university.
Make no mistake: We take no issue with the rule as it stands now. And we don't always agree with Cosner's outspoken agenda. However, she deserves credit for stepping into a thankless position where she could buck the status quo and force influential policy-makers to tell her just why her ideas wouldn't work. Simply put, Cosner is an activist's activist, and it's fairly uncommon to see any undergraduate students take the risks Cosner has to pursue change. But sadly, her risk-taking has made her the rare student who has been unceremoniously ousted from her position after doing so.
Cosner's predicament isn't troubling so much only because she's been outspoken and the senate will lose an active member. The red flags should be going up when one considers that student records and personnel records are offered similar protection under the law. Yet when it comes to serving on the senate, personnel records are closed and student records are apparently ripe for the picking through.
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Alexander Mont
posted 3/12/08 @ 2:38 PM EST
I don't understand why you think that the university is violating FERPA by examining Cosner's records. FERPA prohibits the dissemination of records to third parties without the student's consent. (Continued…)
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