Statement on graduate students

Academe, Jan/Feb 2000

The statement that follows was drafted by a subcommittee of the Association's Committee C on College and University Teaching Research, and Publication and approved for publication by Committee C in October 1999. Comments are welcome and should be addressed to the Association's Washington office.

Preamble

Graduate university programs exist for the discovery and transmission of knowledge, the education of students, the training of future faculty, and the general well-being of society. Free inquiry and free expression are indispensable to the attainment of these goals.

In 1967 the AAUP participated with the National Student Association, the Association of American Colleges, and others in the formulation of the Joint Statement on Rights and Freedoms ofStudents. The Joint Statement has twice been revised and updated, most recently in November 1992. Committee C, while supporting the AAUP's continuing commitment to the Joint Statement, believes that the distinctive circumstances of graduate students require a supplemental statement.

The statement that follows has been formulated to reflect the educational maturity and academic responsibilities characteristic of these students. Graduate students not only engage in more advanced studies than their undergraduate counterparts, they often hold teaching or research assistantships. As graduate assistants, they carry out many of the functions of faculty members and receive compensation for these duties. This statement is intended to reflect these distinguishing academic characteristics and responsibilities.

The statement consists of an outline of recommended standards that Committee C believes will foster sound academic policics in universities with graduate programs. The responsibility to secure and respect general conditions conducive to a graduate student's freedom to learn and to teach is shared by all members of the graduate university community. Each university has a duty to develop policies and procedures that safeguard this freedom. Such policies and procedures should be developed in each institution within the framework of those general standards that enable the university to fulfill its educational mission. These standards are offered not simply to protect the rights of affected individuals but also to ensure that graduate education fulfills its responsibilities to students, faculty, and society.1

Recommended Standards

1. Graduate students have the right to academic freedom. Like other students, "they should be free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion, but they are responsible for learning the content of any course of study for which they are enrolled. 1'2 Moreover, their advanced education particularly requires faculty to encourage their freedom of "discussion, inquiry and expression."3 Further, they should be able to express their opinions freely about matters of institutional policy, and they should have the same freedom of action in the public political domain as faculty members.

Graduate students' freedom of inquiry is necessarily qualified by their being learners in the profession; nonetheless, their faculty mentors should afford them latitude and respect as they decide how they will engage in teaching and research.

2. Graduate students have the right to be free from illegal or unconstitutional discrimination, or discrimination on a basis not demonstrably related to the job function involved, including, but not limited to, age, sex, disability, race, religion, national origin, marital status, or sexual orientation, in admissions and throughout their education, employment, and placement.4 They should be informed of the requirements of their degree programs. When feasible, they should be told about acceptance, application, and attrition rates in their fields, but it is also their responsibility to keep themselves informed. If requirements are altered, students admitted under previous rules should be able to continue under those rules.

Institutions should help students make progress toward their degrees in a timely fashion. They should provide diligent advisers, relevant course offerings, adequate dissertation or thesis supervision, and clear communication of their progress. Students should understand that dissertation or thesis work may be constrained by the areas of interest and specialization of available faculty supervisors.

If a student's dissertation or thesis adviser departs once the student's work is under way, the responsible academic officers should endeavor to provide the student with alternative supervision, external to the institution if necessary. If a degree program is to be discontinued, provisions must be made for students already in the program to complete their course of study.

3. Graduate students are entitled to the recognition and protection of their intellectual property rights. This includes recognition of their participation in supervised research and the research of faculty. Standards of attribution and acknowledgment in collaborative settings should be publicly available.