Rights and Responsibilities
Student Rights and Responsibilities
Students have certain rights as members of the University community in addition to those constitutional and statutory rights and privileges inherent from the State of Iowa and the United States of America, and nothing in this document shall be construed so as to limit or abridge students' constitutional rights. Students have the responsibility not to deny these rights to the other members of the University community. Student rights at Iowa State University are listed and explained here.
Students have the right to:
- Have access to academic and non-academic University policies.
- Express themselves through academic work within the guidelines of the University rules and regulations. The right to expression does not affect the responsibility of the University and its faculty to evaluate based upon genuine academic criteria such as relevance, coherence, creativity and quality of academic work.
- Participate in University-sponsored activities and services without threat of harassment or discrimination.
- Join any organization without fear of charges being brought solely on the basis of membership.
- Expect that the University will not create and keep records that reflect beliefs, political activity, and associations except for information provided by students. The University may maintain counseling, health, law enforcement and disciplinary records which can only be released by expressed consent, a court order or as otherwise permitted by law.
- Petition for change in academic or non-academic regulations, procedures, or practices.
- Be protected from ex post facto (after the fact) regulations. An ex post facto rule is a rule created after an act has occurred, in order to be applied to the prior act.
- Due process in the student judicial process, as required by law and as described in Section 5 of the Student Disciplinary Regulations.
- Be informed of and comment during the process of formulating non-academic regulations, procedures, or practices of the University.
Subject to the rights indicated above, students and registered student/campus organizations have the responsibility to:
- Respect the personal and property rights of the University community and all its members.
- Represent themselves and their organizations truthfully and accurately in their interaction with official University functions.
- Accept the consequences of their actions.
Complainant Rights and Responsibilities; Other Persons Reporting Violations
Complainants are persons who were the target of, or were affected by, the misconduct. Complainants have the following rights:
- To know the outcome of the case. The right to know the outcome does not include the right to access files on students, or to be present at every stage of disciplinary proceedings.
- Complainants may make a statement of how the alleged conduct has affected them. If the Complainant is a member of the University community at the time of a request for reinstatement by a student who committed an infraction against the Complainant, the Complainant has a right to provide a statement for or against reinstatement.
- Complainants may make a statement of their opinion as to an appropriate sanction if a student or student/campus organization is found responsible for misconduct.
Complainants and persons who report misconduct are expected to cooperate in providing accurate information regarding the alleged conduct, including providing documents and physical evidence if requested.
