Shannon Kelly
News Editor
A student group called “Pepperdine Student Bill of Rights” has drafted a constitution aspiring to, among other things, “demote the generally unfair and ensure the progressing of those who disagree with the powers that be.” It is making plans to move beyond grassroots stages and on to addressing and involving the administration as well as SGA according to co-founders freshman Paul Stanford and sophomore Alex Robertson.
“Freedom of Religion,” “Quartering of the Opposite Sex,” and “Prohibition Repealed and Inherent Rights Permitted” are among the 12 amendments, included in the detailed draft available for students to view and discuss via Facebook.
The group’s creators say their intentions are not to disregard the university’s Christian mission, rather they are advocating more consistency in how disciplinary actions are carried out.
“We have absolutely no intentions of undermining Pepperdine’s mission or of promoting Pepperdine as a party school or anything like that,” Stanford, who wrote the Constitution, said. “We want to cooperate with Pepperdine in making a concrete set of rules and consequences.”
Although Stanford acknowledged that a full list of possible offenses lined up with the subsequent consequences is unpractical, Robertson, who created the Facebook group, says he thinks clarity and cohesion need to be improved and can be accomplished if Pepperdine adheres to a “system of precedence.”
“There isn’t any real and fair way to make a cause and effect list for all possible offenses,” he said. “But our argument for a more consistent adherence to standards involves a way to make the punishment for one student accused of something culpable to previous punishments handed down by the administration for that same offense.”
Assistant Dean of Students Sharon Beard, who has read the “Pepperdine Student Bill of Rights,” says the administration and Judicial Affairs takes student feedback very seriously.
“Any time students want to present something to the administration for improvement or change to current policy, we’re always open to that,” she said. “Every year we review our student handbook, and we ask for input from students or anyone else who wants to offer suggestions for change.”
The Pepperdine Student Handbook contains an in-depth “Table of Standard Sanctions,” which is the closest instated policy model to the Pepperdine Student Bill of Rights group’s call for a “concrete set of rules and consequences.” It lists 10 of the most common conduct infringements and subsequent disciplinary action for the first through third violations. “Students can look at that and see a minimum of what to expect, but other sanctions can be added depending on each individual case,” Beard said.
She pointed to the student policy statement that reads, “the University retains the right to instate additional policies and regulations or to modify existing ones as needs may dictate,” and said that declaration allows situations to be reviewed on an individual level since every case is unique.
The co-founders said they agreed that Facebook was not necessarily an idyllic forum to promote their cause, but decided the Internet debate was their best option at the time of their group’s inception.
“There really isn’t another arena at Pepperdine to reach a large number of people,” Robertson said. “In early December, we started to just want to raise awareness about what we are doing and it seems like this has.”
The online forum that has more than 300 members has provided a backdrop for argument and discussion, which Robertson and Stanford say they appreciate and are taking in to consideration while they work on revising and perfecting their Constitution before they present their idea to administration.
Many students provided input on the discussion board, including Senior SLA Ryan Harvey who outlined his ideas for revisions to almost all of the amendments. Although he says he thinks the Bill of Rights is a good concept, he said he has since left the group since he doesn’t want to be affiliated with the “we want a party school,” direction he feels the online discussion has gone.
“If they are truly fighting for what they stated initially, they could get a lot of good out of this since there are areas of the handbook that could be more clearly defined,” Harvey said. “Essentially there needs to be a more specific clarification of exactly what rights and what avenues students have available to them.”
Harvey says he would encourage the group to approach SGA and the administration in a way that that shows Pepperdine Student Bill of Rights wants to amiably address some flaws while working together with the administration to remedy some the university policy’s weaknesses to make this university a better place.
Other students, such as junior Rachel Ono-Jafi have entered into the campus-wide discussion that this group has spurred. She says she agrees with most of Pepperdine’s policies and believes that, as a private institution, the school has the right to implement certain rules.
“There are certain things, like the administration looking at Facebook pictures to use for disciplinary actions, that aggravated me,” she said. “But at the same time I don’t think there are any legal reasons why Pepperdine shouldn’t be able to do what it is doing. People chose to go to this school knowing its policies.”
01-18-2007