I was disappointed to read the Alligator editorial board's antagonistic rant against what graduate students have been fighting for more than a year to achieve, the Graduate Student Bill of Rights.
The board thinks the bill of rights is "dumb" because it "duplicates" rights mentioned in the Student Body constitution. The board notes the fact that these "duplicated" rights have existed for some time but ignores the unsettling truth that instances of bullying have plagued far too many graduate students, despite the existence of these rights.
The Graduate Student Council wrote the bill of rights because bullying persists at our university. Having a single document that enumerates the rights of graduate students and empowers those students to exercise these rights is the best first step toward combating bullying.
The bill of rights contains 14 clauses and enumerates nearly 30 basic rights, but the editorial board mentioned only six clauses as being redundant. Those clauses were written to address problems not contemplated by existing rules, as were the other 24 provisions (e.g. the right to be recognized for scholarly contributions, the right to academic freedom, the right to decline tasks unrelated to academic or professional development) not mentioned in the editorial.
The bill of rights also contains a provision on enforcement, which calls upon departments and colleges to set up grievance procedures. I guess the board skipped over that provision.
I can't help but wonder whether the editorial board trashed the bill of rights because it viewed it as a project of the Gator Party and Student Government.
We all know the Alligator will somehow find a way to discount any good initiative by SG. But here's a news flash: The bill of rights was written by graduate students and the Graduate Student Council. It must pass through SG and several other governing bodies before it is codified.
If you want to know the importance of the Graduate Student Bill of Rights, ask a graduate student whose academic experience will be positively affected by it.
After all, the students' opinions of the bill of rights' importance matters, not the unfounded opinion of the pessimistic media that sometimes, as we've seen here, do more to impede progress than they have ever done to promote it.
