Page 41 - The Flame

ti ons.” The academic rights of the students as ing in 2004, it was called the Magna Carta
“It falls down to one objecti ve in the defi ned and protected by the charter in- for Students’ Rights. Former Central Board
fi rst place. It needs to be granted to any Fili- clude the right to informati on about the of Students (CBS) speaker Philippe Advi-
pino student, but we also need to consider course they are taking (Secti on 6), the ento pioneered the project together with
the University protocols and standards so it right against unreasonable deadlines and Valdeavilla.
will fi t the needs of the Thomasian commu- requirements (Secti on 7), and the right to The incumbent CSC president said the
nity,” she said. evaluate tenured and non-tenured profes- supposed “watering down “of the name of
The incumbent CSC president said that sors (Secti on 10), among others. the charter was due to the radical implica-
there is a diff erence “among the diff erent Taguiam noted that one of the most ti on of the term “Magna Carta.”
universiti es in the Philippines. Students controversial provisions of the code is the The Code was said to reach its momen-
from UST are generally quieter compared one that speaks about the right to evalu- tum in 2007 during Reyner Villaseñor’s term
to students from other universiti es who are ate professors. However, she said that the as CSC President. During that ti me, then Fa-
fi ghti ng for their right to speak out.” provision will aid the University in provid- ther Rector Ernesto Arceo, O.P. pledged to
“With the Code, the students will be ing proper remedies to problems regarding hasten the passage of the Code. The Magna
given the confi dence to stand up for them- competency of teachers Carta was then already reviewed by Arceo
selves with regard to their right as a person. “At present, we have a lot of cases and was subject for re-deliberati on by the
It is imperati ve that while inside the school, against tenured professors. Our point in CBS due to some vague provisions.
we could sense our rights,” Taguiam said. evaluati ng them is to show if they are sti ll However, Arceo, together with two oth-
capable of teaching the students,” she said. er high-ranking offi cials, resigned from their
Controversial provision The Code will also provide the rights for posts as they were dragged in the UST Hos-
The Central Board provided the Flame married and unmarried pregnant students pital controversy, causing the delay of the
with a copy of the SWDB-endorsed Code. to enroll, if her conditi on would not “preju- passage of the Code. F
The charter was previously divided into dice her academic studies, her health, as
nine arti cles; however, the recent proposal well as the
was added with a certain provision regard- life of the
ing students’ responsibiliti es. unborn.”
The arti cles in the code include General
Principles, Academic Rights, Freedom of L o o k i n g
Expression, Right to Informati on, Right to back
Parti cipate in Policy-Making, Right to Orga- During
nize, Right to Due Process, Responsibiliti es the Code’s
of Students, Miscellaneous Rights, and Final f i r s t
Provisions. d ra f t-

EDILBERTO LORENZO R. MORELOS, JR.
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