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Faculty Assembly

Second Regular Session

Sixty-fourth General Assembly

STATE OF COLORADO

LLS NO. 04-0751.02 Julie Pelegrin

INTRODUCED

HOUSE BILL 04-1315

HOUSE SPONSORSHIP

Mitchell, Cadman, Brophy, Miller, Rhodes, Sinclair, and Tochtrop

SENATE SPONSORSHIP(none)

House Committees / Senate Committees

Education

A BILL FOR AN ACT

101 CONCERNING STUDENTS' RIGHTS IN HIGHER EDUCATION.

Bill Summary

(Note: This summary applies to this bill as introduced and does not necessarily reflect any amendments that may be subsequently adopted.)

Recognizes students' rights to academic freedom, rights to freedom from discrimination on the basis of political or religious beliefs, and rights to information concerning grievance procedures for protection of their academic freedoms. Directs the governing boards of the state institutions of higher education to adopt a grievance procedure for use in enforcing students' rights.

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Colorado:

SECTION 1. 23-1-125 (1), Colorado Revised Statutes, is    amended BY THE ADDITION OF THE FOLLOWING NEW PARAGRAPHS to read:

23-1-125. Commission directive - student bill of rights – degree requirements - implementation of ore courses - competency test - academic freedom. (1) Student bill of rights.

The general assembly hereby finds that students enrolled in public institutions of higher education shall have the following rights:

(h)STUDENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO EXPECT THAT THEIR ACADEMIC FREEDOM WILL NOT BE INFRINGED BY INSTRUCTORS WHO CREATE A HOSTILE ENVIRONMENT TOWARD THEIR POLITICAL OR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS OR WHO INTRODUCE CONTROVERSIAL MATTER INTO THE CLASSROOM OR COURSE WORK THAT IS SUBSTANTIALLY UNRELATED TO THE SUBJECT OFSTUDY;

(i)STUDENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO EXPECT THAT THEY WILL' BE GRADED SOLELY ON THE BASIS OF THEIR REASONED ANSWERS AND APPROPRIATE KNOWLEDGE OF THE SUBJECTS THEY STUDY AND THAT THEYSHALL NOT BE DISCRIMINATED AGAINST ON THE BASIS OF THEIR POLITICALOR RELIGIOUS BELIEFS;

(j) STUDENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO EXPECT THAT THEIR ACADEMIC INSTITUTIONS SHALL DISTRIBUTE `STUDENT FEE FUNDS ON A VIEWPOINT NEUTRAL BASIS AND SHALL MAINTAIN A POSTURE OF NEUTRALITY WITH RESPECT TO SUBSTANTIVE POLITICAL OR RELIGIOUS DISAGREEMENTS, DIFFERENCES, AND OPINIONS;

(k)STUDENTS HAVE A RIGHT TO BE FULLY INFORMED OF THEIR INSTITUTIONS' GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES FOR VIOLATIONS OF ACADEMIC FREEDOM BY MEANS OF NOTICES PROMINENTLY DISPLAYED IN COURSE CATALOGS OR STUDENT HANDBOOKS AND ON THE INSTITUTIONAL WEB  SITE.                   

SECTION 2. Article 5 of title 23, Colorado Revised Statutes, is amended BY THE ADDITION OF A NEW SECTION to read:                   

23-5-128.Governing boards - protection of student rights. EACH GOVERNING BOARD SHALL ADOPT A GRIEVANCE PROCEDURE BY WHICH A STUDENT MAY SEEK A REDRESS OF GRIEVANCE FOR AN ALLEGED 8 VIOLATION OF ANY OF THE RIGHTS SPECIFIED IN SECTION 23-1-125 (1) (h) TO (1) (k). EACH GOVERNING BOARD SHALL PUBLICIZE THE GRIEVANCE 10           

PROCEDURE TO THE STUDENTS ON EACH CAMPUS OF THE INSTITUTIONS THAT ARE UNDER THE CONTROL AND :DIRECTION OF THE GOVERNING BOARD.                   

SECTION 3. Effective date. This act shall take effect at 12:01a.m. on the day following the expiration of the ninety-day period after final adjournment of the general assembly that is allowed for submitting a referendum petition pursuant to article V, section 1 (3) of the state constitution (August 4, 2004, if adjournment sine die is on May 5,2004); except that, if a referendum petition is filed against this act or an item, section, or part of this act within such period, then the act, item, section, or part, if approved by the people, shall take effect on the date of the official declaration of the vote thereon by proclamation of the governor.  AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORSMemorandum Date:            

February 11, 2004

To...Faculty at University of Colorado, Colorado Springs

From: Mark F. Smith, Director of Government Relations

Dana R Waller, AAUP-CC Vice President for Government Relations Re:                

The Academic Bill of Rights

The Colorado House Committee on Education is scheduled to hold a hearing on BB 1315, Concerning Student's Rights in Higher Education, next Wednesday February 18. The hearing will be held in Room 0 107 of the State Capitol in Denver at approximately 10:00 am. Faculty and students are urged to attend and voice their opposition to this bill. If you plan to attend please contact Dana Walter for more details at danarwaller@msn.com or 303-776-0464.

In addition, it is important that legislators on that committee hear directly from faculty on the state's campuses how this proposed legislation could affect education in the classroom. [Contact information for the House Education Committee is listedbelow.]

This bill is the second measure introduced in Colorado based on the Academic Bill of Rights, and it also directs institution to establish a grievance procedure for use in enforcing student's rights. The Colorado Conference has already met with the bill's lead sponsor and other legislators to apprise them of our concerns about this legislation.

AAUP concerns about the "Academic Bill of Rights" and legislation based on such documents rest on the paradox that they infringe upon "academic freedom in the very act of purporting to protect it." The December 2003 Committee A staff on the Academic Bill of Rights points out that "a fundamental premise of academic freedom is that decisions concerning the quality of scholarship and teaching are to be made by reference to the standards of the academic profession, as interpreted and applied by the community of scholars who are qualified by expertise and training to establish such standards." By directing colleges and universities to enact guidelines "requiring that colleges and universities appoint faculty `with a view toward fostering a plurality of methodologies and perspectives'" these bills "invite diversity to be measured by political standards that diverge from the academic criteria of the scholarly profession."

Inevitably, one result of the statutory enactment of an Academic Bill of Rights will be to transfer responsibility for the evaluation of student competence from faculty to administrators, the courts, or same other governmental entity. HB 1315, for example statutorily establishes yet another grievance procedure for students who feel politically intimidated on top of existing grade appeal procedures. Ultimately, this threatens to create chaos. By mistakenly confusing a defensible principle that knowledge ismutable and open to revision with an unsupportable proposition proclaiming *the uncertainty and unsettled character of all human knowledge,"an Academic Bill of Rights "reduces all knowledge to uncertain and unsettled opinion, and ... proclaims that all opinions are equally valid, negates an essential function of university education." That function, "the basic scholarly enterprise of the university ... is to establish and transmit knowledge.

"The national Association's Committee: A on Academic Freedom and Tenure December 2003 statement is available on the Association's website.

[http://www.aaup.org/statements/SpchState/billofrights.htm]

In addition faculty at the University of Northern Colorado have weighed in with an op-ed in the Denver Post last December. That statement is available on the newspaper's website at http://www.denverpost.com/Sotries/0,1413,36%257E73%257E1837580,00.html?search=filter# 

And the Conference developed a position paper on House Joint Resolution 04-1003, concerning First Amendment Protections of the Campuses of Colorado Publicly Funded Colleges and Universities, an earlier legislative rendition of the Academic Bill of Rights.

That paper is available at http://www.aaup.org/govrel/States/HJR04-1003.htm.

The full text of BB 1315 itself is available online at the Colorado legislature's website: http://www.leg.state.co/us/CLICS2004A/csl.nst/fsbillcont3/3AA753210CFC20AF87256E14000FF9AE?Open&file=1315_01.pdf