College Council (CC) adopted the Emory Student Bill of Rights during its second legislative meeting on Sept. 11. CC Chief of Staff Alexander Chanen (21B) introduced the resolution, which enumerates the rights of all Emory students.
“I feel really strongly that we have a little bit of an activism problem on campus, and that we don’t talk about a lot of the stuff that is going on and affecting students,” Chanen said. “A lot of students … don’t have voices in councils like this.”
Chanen said that problems such as food insecurity and homelessness significantly restrict students’ lives and freedoms because these immediate concerns often overshadow academics.
“[T]here is a lot of food insecurity on this campus. You cannot effectively be a student if you are going to bed hungry at night,” Chanen said. “There is a lot of homelessness on campus. You cannot be an effective student at Emory University if you are homeless.”
Emory does not have publically available statistics on homelessness.
Chanen noted that even though adopting the resolution would not affect legislative change to the CC policy, it serves as “a statement by College Council saying that we want to work to a better tomorrow for Emory,” Chanen said.
In an interview with the Wheel, Chanen said he wanted the resolution to raise awareness among the general public about the hidden problems that students often face.
“It is very hard to be an advocate for these issues when you don’t realize they are going on,” Chanen said. “I just want to make sure that we are having these critical conversations.”
Chanen said that he would like to bring the resolutions to the rest of the divisional councils and to the Student Government Association, adding that he hopes the resolution will eventually be used as a platform for change.
The resolution passed with nine legislators voting for and one abstention.
First readings were held for bills by CC President Jacob Hicks (20C) to deallocate funds for the printing initiative and to combine the roles of the legislative liaison and the president pro-tempore into a singular position. Both bills will be voted on during the Sept. 25 meeting.
Tanika Deuskar (22C) is from Bangalore, India. She intends to double major in Biology and Creative Writing. She loves jogging, listening to podcasts, and eating spicy food.
