The Advisory Neighborhood Council passed a bill designed to protect student rights this Tuesday. The bill sets a standard for how the community should handle student issues.
A vote on the Student Bill of Rights was postponed at the September meeting of the ANC because many present at that meeting were not aware of widespread discrimination against students.
“At the last meeting we heard that we needed to engage in a dialogue with the community,” ANC Commissioner Justin Wagner (CAS ‘03) said.
According to Wagner, a student bill of rights is necessary to protect students’ rights from infringements such as in a recent decision by the D.C. Board of Zoning Adjustment.
While the BZA initially confirmed their support for the University’s 10 Year Plan in November 2000, the board later implemented several conditions that infringed on student rights.
For example, the BZA requires that the University record the license plate numbers of students’ motor vehicles and report the numbers to appropriate District agencies. Furthermore, the BZA also asked the University to offer parking on campus only to students who register their cars in the District. Lastly, the University would have to conform to information release standards regarding complaints of off-campus misconduct and student disciplinary records.
Since the September ANC meeting, Wagner and fellow ANC Commissioner Justin Kopa (CAS ‘03) have worked to educate Georgetown residents and students. Additionally, several other ANC commissioners attended a Campaign Georgetown meeting to discuss discrimination with students, in an effort to pass the resolution. Campaign Georgetown is a student watch-dog group for off-campus affairs.
“I do support this resolution and the inclusion of students in community institutions and in community life,” ANC Commissioner Peter Pulsifer said. “I believe that [inclusion] can be done in a responsible way and that students can participate responsibly in the community. That is what I think is good about this, that it encourages responsibility.”
Furthermore, many students support the resolution’s commitment to preventing future problems.
“I think this is the ANC being proactive, saying ‘let’s eliminate problems that will happen in the future,’” Brian McCabe (SFS ‘02) said. “As a community we should say that students should be treated as anyone else.”
However, local residents voiced their concerns regarding University students’ noise level, trash, destruction of property and disorderly conduct .
“I have been discriminated against by students,” Georgetown resident Sarah Palsy said. “This is simply outrageous that students in our community have not lived up to their civic responsibility.”
Some local residents argued that past student conduct does not merit awarding new community privileges, and commissioners agreed that much work remains to be done in terms of neighborhood relations.
“This is only a piece of paper and we have a lot of work to do to improve relations,” ANC Commissioner Tom Birch said.
According to Wagner, Campaign Georgetown will be forming an all-student committee in the near future to improve student conduct and neighborhood relations.
“This just says that we don’t support making students a class separate from everyone else,” ANC Commissioner Justin Kopa said. “It’s just a starting point.”
