The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

OSCCR turns down Student Bill of Rights

By By Maggie Cassidy, News Staff

For the second year in a row, the Office of Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution (OSCCR) Code of Student Conduct will not see any major changes, despite a concerted effort by student leaders.
Student Government Association (SGA) Vice President of Student Affairs Erin Pritchard said the Student Bill of Rights, a piece of legislation passed by SGA and the Resident Student Association (RSA) last month, will not be included in the 2009-10 Code of Student Conduct. The decision was made by an OSCCR subcommittee earlier this month, she said.
OSCCR Director Valerie Randall-Lee said in a statement to The News that subcommittee members included representatives from OSCCR, Residential Life, student representatives from SGA and RSA and students at large.
Pritchard said that while SGA and RSA drafted a Student Bill of Rights, representatives from the OSCCR subcommittee wanted to see a ‘Student Bill of Rights and Responsibilities.’
‘[The Student Bill of Rights] was meant to be more of a guide for students who do get in trouble, knowing what their rights are and what they can get out of it,’ Pritchard said. ‘But at the same time we can understand OSCCR’s perspective. They want the students to be honest [during the hearings] because they’re going to get the best results that way.’
She said she is working with the subcommittee to continue drafting a new Bill of Rights and Responsibilities and looking at ‘how we can best combine both their concerns and our concerns’ while still ‘making sure we’re not conceding to their concerns.’
Although it will not be included in the Code of Student Conduct, she said it could potentially be e-mailed to students as a resource in case they are called for an OSCCR hearing.
‘It’s a little disheartening,’ Pritchard said of the legislation not being added to the Code of Student Conduct. ‘We’re doing whatever we can to push through it right now.’
In her statement, Randall-Lee said the Bill of Rights is ‘a comprehensive proposal, which we take very seriously and want to make sure that the proper amount of time is devoted to reviewing it.’
OSCCR reform is a reoccurring issue in SGA, said former senator George Gottschalk IV in a letter in a Feb. 9 article’ in The News.
‘When I was a freshman, the senior senators told me they had been fighting for OSCCR reform since they were freshmen. Not only that, but when they were freshmen, the senior senators told them they had been fighting for OSCCR reform since they were freshmen. That means the NU SGA has been fighting for OSCCR reform for at least 15 years without measurable results,’ he said.

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