FOREWORD
FOREWORDThe foreword is not a part of the document that follows. It supplies, however, a necessary perspective for interpreting the document.
Student rights and responsibilities at Michigan State University must be understood against the social and historical background of the University itself.
When, more than a century ago, the people of Michigan established this institution on the land-grant principle, they framed a new conception of the role of the University in American life.
A land-grant university is a trusteeship of intellect in the service of society. It gathers society's creative and critical powers and uses them to advance the common good and to solve fundamental problems.
That is the special character that has caused the land- grant university to become one of the great transforming agencies of the American scene. When it honors its commission, it acts not for the sake of the academic community, but for the sake of society beyond the academy. All members of the academic community -- trustees, administrators, faculty, staff and students -- enact a trust of which society beyond the University is the proper beneficiary.
The real significance of this document, as we believe, is not that students have acquired rights, but that they have explicitly been made party to our social trust. The responsibility which lies upon the trustees, the administration, and the faculty continues. They remain guardians of the University, charged with preserving in it the genius of scholarship and the conditions of inquiry which society has entrusted to their care.
PREFACE
This report, the Graduate Student Rights and Responsibilities document, and the Medical Students Rights and Responsibilities document contain guidelines to the rights and duties of students in matters of conduct, academic pursuits, the keeping of records, and publications. This report describes structures and procedures for the formulation of regulations governing student conduct, for the interpretation and amendment of the guidelines, for the adjudication of student disciplinary cases, and for channeling student complaints, grievances, or concerns to faculty, staff, and administrators for appropriate action.
For the most part, these provisions simply make explicit what has been long understood and practiced at Michigan State University. This report identifies rights and duties of students and provides for students a carefully prescribed system of due process. The report does not contain a general or abstract definition of academic freedom. Rather, the report is an operational definition with concrete application of the concept of academic freedom for students.
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