Student Rights and Responsibilities
California State University, East Bay welcomes the great variety of students of our campuses in Hayward and Concord, both as a strength and an opportunity. We respect and learn from each other's distinctive experiences and traditions, students, faculty and staff form a community dedicated to free inquiry and the unfettered exchange of ideas and criticism, as well as to practical accomplishment.
The university values the diversity in background, interests, experiences, beliefs, and cultures of faculty, staff, and students. Students come to campus with unique experiences, and while on campus, as a result of their interaction in the formal classroom and co-curricular programs and activities, they continue to develop and expand their knowledge and pursuits.
Freedom of expression and academic freedom are essential. The university is an institution that recognizes unfettered freedom in the give and take of ideas and opinions. The ideal of the university as a marketplace of ideas must not interfere with the equally important ideal of a university where all people are respected. We strive for an environment where tolerance, rational discourse, thoughtfulness, and reason prevail over uncontrolled emotion and prejudice. The two ideals of an university as a marketplace of ideas and as a community of scholarship should not conflict, but sometimes they do.
How can the protection of freedoms of expression, access, privacy and opportunity be balanced against securing a campus relatively free of bias? CSUEB is committed to work toward creating a just academic community where all students, faculty and staff can benefit from one another's experience. Everyone must begin with tolerance, respect and communication, and move to understanding.
Harassing behavior based on prejudicial attitudes related to race, gender, disability, color, national origin, religion, marital status or sexual orientation is unwelcome at CSUEB and is considered an affront to the intellectual and civil community fostered at the university.
Rights and Responsibilities
Freedom of Access to CSUEB
Rights:
- Unobstructed access to campus programs and services.
- The right to be informed about the institution, its policies, practices and characteristics.
- Freedom from discrimination or harassment on the basis of individual attributes, including but not limited to race, color, gender, age, income, disability, political views, national origin, religion or sexual orientation.
Responsibilities:
- Participate effectively in campus programs and services to be informed of campus policies, practices, and characteristics and to make appropriate choices.
- Observe all policies, regulations, deadlines and procedures for access to the University. More Information is contained in the University Catalog.
Freedoms and Rights in the Classroom
Freedom to teach and to learn are inseparable. Student academic freedom is incorporated into the classroom setting where learning is concentrated and structured.
Rights:
- Engage in free discussion, inquiry, and expression in the classroom.
- Freedom to take reasonable exception to data or views offered in any course of study and to reserve judgment about matters of opinion.
- Protection from prejudicial or capricious academic evaluation.
Responsibilities:
- Don't commit acts that are incompatible with the opportunity for the instructor to teach and students to learn, including obstruction or disruption of the educational process, administrative process or other campus functions, including those sponsored by the University that occur off campus.
- Learn the content of any course of study for which they are enrolled.
Protection Against Improper Academic Evaluation
Rights:
- Performance evaluations based solely on academic accomplishment, not on opinions or conduct in matters unrelated to academic standards.
Improper Disclosure
Rights:
- Confidentiality of information about a student's views, beliefs, and political activities acquired by professors in the course of their work as instructors, advisers, and counselors.
- Request or authorization of University personnel to comment on their views and beliefs in the form of a recommendation, and/or other benefits and opportunities. University personnel have a right to refuse to provide recommendations. Improper disclosure of information protected by the student /University relationship is adjudicated by the Vice President of Student Affairs.
Student Participation in Campus Life
As in the classroom, students have protection through orderly procedures to assure the right of participation in campus life. The University maintains certain standards to preserve the following fundamental freedoms for students:
Freedom of Association
Rights:
- Freedom to organize and join associations to promote their common interests, and to have these associations be officially recognized by the University.
Responsibilities:
- Recognized student organizations are responsible for abiding by all institutional regulations for student organizations.
Freedom of Inquiry and Expression
Rights:
- Freedom to examine and discuss all questions of interest to them and to express opinions publicly and privately so long as others' rights are not violated in the process.
- Freedom to support causes by orderly means, which do not disrupt the regular and essential operation of the institution.
Student Participation in Institutional Government
Rights:
- Freedom individually and collectively to express their views on issues of institutional policy, and on matters of general interest to the student body.
- Freedom to elect their peers to serve and represent them in University government as members of the student body.
Student Publications
Rights:
- Editorial freedom for student editors and managers, including freedom from censorship, advance approval of copy, and development of their own editorial policies and news coverage.
- Protection from arbitrary suspension and removal because of student, faculty, administrative or public disapproval of editorial policy or content. Removal shall be by the department responsible for the appointment of editors and managers.
Responsibilities:
- Avoidance of libel, obscenity, undocumented allegations, attacks on personal integrity, and techniques of harassment and innuendo.
- A statement on the editorial page of all publications that the opinions expressed are not necessarily those of the University or student body.
Student Responsibilities for Conduct
The administration of student discipline at the University guarantees procedural fairness to an accused student or student organization. Practices in disciplinary cases may vary in formality depending on the gravity of the offense and the sanction which may be applied.
- Faculty and students share responsibility for student academic freedom in the classroom.
- Students are responsible for learning the content of any course of study for which they are enrolled.
- Students are responsible for maintaining standards of academic performance established for each course in which they are enrolled.
- Students and faculty who produce student publications have the responsibility to establish and adhere to standards of responsible journalism.
Any student of a campus may be expelled, suspended, placed on probation, or given a lesser sanction for violations of the code which occur on University premises, or at off-campus functions or programs sponsored by the University.