The Student Union is currently involved in discussion with the administration about incorporating the Student Bill of Rights into the University's Rights and Responsibilities Handbook or have it recognized by the University as a separate document, according to Student Union Director of Community Development Ryan McElhaney '10."We want the University to recognize these as student rights, not just the Student Union," said Student Union Director of Communications Jamie Ansorge '09.

McElhaney said he has met with Dean of Student Life Rick Sawyer and Senior Vice President for Students and Enrollment Jean Eddy and hopes to meet with the University's Legal Counsel Judith Sizer to make the two documents more compatible.

Sawyer wrote in an e-mail to the Justice that he hopes to see a "current, all-inclusive copy of the Bill of Rights" at a meeting with McElhaney today.

"The issue right now is that the Student Bill of Rights does state certain things that seem to be quite contradictory with Rights and Responsibilities, and the administration, if it's going to accept [the Student Bill of Rights], needs to make sure that it's an enforceable policy that doesn't contradict with previous statements," McElhaney said.

McElhaney said he created a document that compares and contrasts the Student Bill of Rights and Rights and Responsibilities to help in discussions with administrators.

The document states, "We need to clarify what exactly constitutes harassment under current Brandeis Policy and how that relates to the Free Expression clauses in [the Student Bill of Rights]."

Additionally, the document states that Rights and Responsibilities is at times more prohibitive than the Student Bill of Rights regarding how students can express themselves under the law.

The Student Bill of Rights also offers more extensive privacy protection clauses, which McElhaney said he hopes will be incorporated into the legal necessities of Rights and Responsibilities.

According to Union Executive Board members, the Student Bill of Rights is an important step toward protecting student rights. "Rights and Responsibilities is heavy on responsibilities and light on rights, and that's why we wanted to actively declare the rights of students," said Ansorge.

Sawyer wrote in his e-mail that most of the rights stated in the Union's Bill of Rights are covered in Rights and Responsibilities.

He wrote, "The draft I saw last year was almost exactly the same as the bill of rights posted on the Web sites of many other schools. I hoped our students could infuse their efforts with more original Brandeis thoughts."

Student?Union President Jason Gray '10, along with Director of the Office of Student Rights and Advocacy Laura Cohen '09, created magnets that enumerate what rights students have if they need to go through the University's judicial system. According to Gray, printing stalled because of wording inconsistent with Rights and Responsibilities, which was brought to his attention by Cohen last week.

"Apparently, Rights and Responsibilities says you don't have to see [evidence that will be used against you] before the trial, so we wanted to ensure the cards are accurate," said Gray. The original copy of the magnets said, "You have the right to see all evidence that will be used against you at a date prior to your hearing," while the revised copy reads, "You have the right to see all evidence that will be used against you at your hearing."

Gray said, "Our goal is, as our goal has always been [to] distribute them before Thanksgiving."

"If we can reduce the number of inconsistencies between Rights and Responsibilities and the Student Bill of Rights, either by modifying the Student Bill of Rights or by modifying Rights and Responsibilities, ... then there's no real reason why it shouldn't be incorporated into Rights and Responsibilities," McElhaney said.

"I think in the best-case scenario, both [documents] get modified slightly to sort of reach a compromise between the administration and the student body," he said.

A good portion of the two documents are noncontradictory and help to clarify student rights, McElhaney said; however, "the issue that I'm more worried about is those things that are a little bit more controversial, where the student body's opinion is a lot different than the administration's opinion." In those cases, "it might not come out exactly as either side wants, but hopefully it'll come out with something that is useful for the student body, at the very least," he said.

"This process will be one of compromise on both sides and we hope that if we can bring [Rights and Responsibilities] in line we will also be able to constitute a committee that would review [Rights and Responsibilities] violations," McElhaney wrote in his e-mail to the Justice.