American River College
Student Association
Press Release April 10, 2009
Student Council of CA’s Largest College
Endorses Student Bill of Rights
Sacramento- In an 8-1 decision, Thursday, the Student Council of California’s largest community college became the first in the state to pass a resolution seeking to protect students from anti-religious and political indoctrination in classrooms.
“I think we have accomplished a historic and very significant act today by passing this resolution to advocate for a Student Bill of Rights,” said American River College Student Representative George Popko, who authored the Resolution.
The 22-year-old councilman who is also running for Student Body President later this month, added, “The purpose of the resolution is to go on record asking the administration to adopt the Student Bill of Rights as official campus policy.”
The bill endorsed by the Council models conservative activist David Horowitz’s “Student Bill of Rights,” a bill which was introduced to the California Senate by Senator Morrow as SB 5 in 2005.
“SB 5 unfortunately lacked active student support,” commented Popko. But the passage of this resolution is just the beginning of what the presidential-hopeful believes will result in broad, state-wide student support.
Popko says he plans to present the Student Bill of Rights Resolution on May 3, before the General Assembly of the Student Senate of California Community Colleges, an organization representing 2.7 million college students.
Locally, on the campus, the Student Bill of Rights received student support, including from campus clubs.
“Students do not feel safe filing a complaint against a professor due to fear of their grade,” said Victor Choban, President of ARC’s Freedom of Speech club. “No student should be harassed or intimidated by their professor simply because they use their freedom of speech in a classroom discussion or essay.”
The effort to protect and advocate for student rights is not the first of its kind for the Council. The recent actions of the Council are part of the 18-member board’s plan to follow through with their campaign promises, the majority of which pledged to address political and anti-religious discrimination.
One such action was voted on in February of this year, when the Council passed a resolution to form a Committee to investigate and respond to instances of anti-religious discrimination in classrooms.
However, the Committee’s formation was vetoed by the college administration through a letter from ARC President David Viar to Student Association President Jacob Johnson on March 11, 2009, claiming the committee was “outside the purview of the student organization” and had “the potential to violate” non-discrimination policies of the college and District.
The Student Council responded to the administrative veto by re-introducing and passing a similarly-worded resolution which authorized the formation of another committee to address anti-religious discrimination.
The vote to form the Committee was passed 8-0 with 1 abstention, on Thursday, April 9, the same day the resolution to endorse the Student Bill of Rights was passed. It is yet to be seen how the administration will respond to either of these actions of the Council.
