Student Rights and Responsibilities

Students' Rights

All current students are afforded the following rights:

1. Freedom of Association

Students are free to organize and join associations to promote their common interests.

2. Freedom of Inquiry and Expression

Subject to the University’s right to regulate time, place, and manner, students and student organizations will be free to examine and discuss all questions of interest to them, and to express opinions publicly and privately. In addition, subject to the same limitations, students will be allowed to invite and to hear any person of their own choosing.

3. Student Participation in Institutional Government

UMD recognizes that as constituents of the academic community, students should be free, individually and collectively, to express their views on issues of institutional policy and on matters of general interest to the student body. Adopted from The National Association of Student Personnel Administrators (NASPA) pamphlet, “Student Rights And Freedoms.”

4. Student Publication Rights

The editorial freedom of student editors and managers entails corollary responsibilities to be governed by the canons of responsible journalism, such as the avoidance of libel, indecency, undocumented allegations, attacks on personal integrity, and the techniques of harassment and innuendo.

As safeguards for the editorial freedom of student publications the following provisions are endorsed by UMD:

• The student press will be free of censorship and advance approval of copy, and its editors and managers will be free to develop their own editorial policies and news coverage.
• All University-published and financed student publications should explicitly state on the editorial page that the opinions there expressed are not necessarily those of the University or student body.