Advisory office re-named

By: Deborah Frisch

Posted: 10/7/08

The Senate voted to approve a name change from the Office of Student Conduct Advisors to the Office of Student Rights and Advocacy in order to refocus the position toward students' rights, as opposed to issues within the University's Office of Student Conduct, on Sunday Sept. 21, said OSRA director Laura Cohen '09.

Last year the Office of Student Conduct Advisors "focused too much on what the Office of Student Conduct does; we didn't want to just focus on hearings, and we wanted to make [the office] more about student rights," said Cohen. She said "last year was the first year in several years the office was functioning."

According to Article XI, Section 5 of the Student Union Bylaws, "The OSCA [now the OSRA] shall serve the student body by providing advisory services for students involved in, and as a student oversight body for, the University's conduct and education system and academic policy disputes."

Erika Lamarre, Director of Student Development and Conduct, expressed some concern with the name change and said, "I think the name might be a bit confusing for students, as this group is affiliated with the Union and isn't a University office. I also think the word 'advocate' might be easily confused with 'advisrrs' which is the role needed in a board hearing. Students involved in the conduct process are their own advocates."

Ryan McElhaney '10, Union director of community development, explained that the goals of the office have been expanded from just assisting students with board hearings. Now members of OSRA will be advisers to students who in any way they feel their rights have been violated. Previously, the office focused on student rights involving disciplinary action.

This year, Cohen said, OSRA wanted to open its services to students who have questions about their student rights, not just in terms of disciplinary action.

Cohen described an example situation in which a community advisor reports that a student has violated the rules by having alcohol in a dry dorm. That student could call OSRA, which would describe to the student what he or she did wrong according to the Rights and Responsibilities in the Handbook, Cohen said; OSRA could even accompany that student to the meeting with their Community Development Cordinator or act as an adviser during a hearing.

Lamarre stated, however, that "hearings don't occur very often. Most students who are documented work with a staff member to talk about their case. In a hearing a student may bring an adviser to be their assistant and source of support during the hearing."

Cohen said that in addition to the name change, OSRA will now have four separate offices to deal with residence life, campus safety, academic integrity and speech and protests, she said. An application will be sent by e-mail to all undergraduates to apply for the positions. Last year the office consisted of only the director.

She said her main goal "is to promote student rights and be a resource for students who feel like their rights have been violated."

McElhaney said the name change is "a result of a lot of the work we were doing last year, working more along the lines of individual advocacy."

In addition to the new focus for OSRA, McElhaney said last year an executive task force wrote a new student Bill of Rights, and "out of 1400 students who voted, there was a 90 percent approval rating, and now we are trying to bring the Student Bill of Rights into the Rights and Responsibilities, but both [the administration and the Student Union] have to be willing to compromise, and some changes need to be made in the Student Bill of Rights, and there are some legal issues we have to get straightened out with general counsel."