Drafting the UT Graduate Student Bill of Rights | The UT Graduate Student Assembly

The Graduate Student Assembly Executive Committee is spearheading efforts to develop a Graduate Student Bill of Rights. Graduate Students at UT Austin are among the nation’s elite scholars and academics, and with the rapidly changing climate in academia the need to assert the rights and responsibilities of students is becoming ever more clear. From labor rights to family rights, the Graduate Student Bill of Rights hopes to address the issues most concerning to graduate students at UT Austin.

Please have a look at the current draft of the bill of rights and offer your comments and/or concerns in the comments section below.

Bill of Rights DRAFT

Preamble - Why a Grad Student Bill of Rights?
1. Rights and Responsibilities of Grad Students within the University and Graduate School
2. Agreement between Grad Students and Administration & Faculty
Right to specific and contractual degree requirements
1. Set out at the entrance of a student to a graduate program
2. Graduate students’ graduation time cannot be extended requirements added after their acceptance to a program.
3. Students have a right to know real time to degree within a specific graduate program, the program’s attrition rate, information about the cause of the attrition based on data of previous years
4. to a centralized repository for all relevant information regarding graduate student degree programs that is well advertised and widely distributed
Right to compensation that meets real living wage standards of a graduate student*
1. Graduate Students appointed as Teaching Assistants, Assistant Instructors, Research Assistants, and/or Graduate Assistants are employees of the University of Texas at Austin.
2. Graduate Student TAs, AIs, RAs, and GAs have the right to formalized requirements outlining their duties as employees, and have the right to refuse work assignments not directly related to their academic duties and research without penalty.
3. Grad Students have the right to a detailed description of workload sharing between student workers and professors
4. Right to guidance on performing duties as a TA/AI
5. Right to professionalization opportunities provided by the University as a part of their academic and employment duties.
Right to objective evaluations that are based on criteria understood by grad students, faculty and admin
1. Right to processes protecting student from arbitrary removal from the program
  1. The process for protecting students from arbitrary removal should be readily accessible and free from coercion by faculty and administration.
2. Right to change major professors, advisors, and committee members if necessary without penalty
3. Right to appeal for cause decisions affecting their academic standing, file complaints, and/or petition for redress
Right to accurate information in selecting advisors and committee members
1. On departure of a graduate student’s advisor from the institution, departments shall strive to provide the student with alternative supervision, external to the institution if necessary.
2. Discontinuation of programs should not negatively affect grad students
3. Provisions shall be made to for students already in the program to finish their course of study
Right to Co-Authorship
1. Graduate students deserve co-authorship in publications to which they have contributed significant content or research, consistent with the generally accepted standards of their fields of study.
2. Graduate students should be treated with respect, as junior colleagues and potential future peers upon gaining admission to their program of study.
  1. Graduate students can expect that their vulnerability in having a lesser status or lesser experience will not be exploited.
3. Graduate Students should be informed of the authorship order and requirements attached to the same at the beginning of the collaboration in research.
Right to equal and fair treatment under the law
1. No discrimination due to race, gender, sexual identity
2. No sexual harassment
  1. Graduate students have the right to a complaint and reporting process that is free from coercion and influence from faculty supervisors.
  2. Graduate students that submit reports of inappropriate behavior have the right to be protected as whistleblowers.
3. No discrimination for family status
  1. Graduate students should not be penalized for changes in family status.
  2. Graduate students with family responsibilities should not be penalized for missing department or college events
4. Academic / Personal Freedom of Ideas and Speech
  1. Graduate students should not be persecuted for criticism of University policies.
A graduate student’s performance or behavior should not be discussed by a professor with other students or staff without consent of the student.
1. The confidentiality of a graduate student’s performance should be maintained at all times.
2. Discussion of students among faculty should be of a professional nature, and limited to academic performance.
Right to Representation
1. Right to share in governance of the university
2. Graduate students have the right to maintain Graduate Student Assembly as their governing body and official voice, free of coercion.
3. Right to have representatives on all campus-wide administrative committees that affect graduate students, with voting privileges.
  1. Right for the Graduate Student Assembly to be given charges to these committees and be informed whenever a new committee is formed to address any issues that will affect graduate students.
4. Students representing graduate students must be current graduate students.
5. All deans who have graduate students under their charge should have student advisory committees.

Responsibilities of Graduate Students

Conducting themselves in a professional manner that reflects consideration of the University Honor Code
Fulfill teaching and research responsibilities to the best of their abilities
Participate and build a healthy community among their peers