For years UCF student leaders have been fighting for student rights, and Student Government Association Attorney General Nicholas Gurney and Judicial Advisor Reggie Paros want to make sure UCF’s 56,000 students are well aware of them. So, they launched a “Know Your Rights” campaign.
Hundreds of students attended the inaugural launch event of the campaign, focusing on education and advocacy of student rights at UCF. The launch, held two weeks ago, was a big success, according to an SGA press release, attracting traffic to the Student Union atrium from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
“Student rights are a big deal,” said Attorney General Gurney. “A campaign like this is a long time coming and we as student leaders should be protecting student rights at every opportunity. That’s why we’re doing this.”
The campaign aims to attract students to the Know Your Rights website, where it informs students of their rights outlined in UCF’s Golden Rule Student Handbook and elsewhere. The first listed is the right of “Participation in Student Government Association and its elective process.”
While the Know Your Rights campaign alerts students of their right to participate in SGA, it also has a broader goal. It was created to foster a culture of knowledge, advocacy, and ultimately accountability in the student rights arena, according to the SGA release.
“The focus of the campaign is to show students that they have rights and that those rights are important,” Gurney said. “We also have an initiative component that encourages students to tell us what they would like to see change around campus.”
Gurney, along with Paros, plan on hosting a number of events and speakers that will cover rights-related topics during the spring semester.
“The ‘Know Your Rights’ campaign is something that I felt has been needed since I began in SGA three years ago,” Paros said. “Working directly with students, I found that many of them don’t know a lot of their rights and responsibilities on and off campus, and feel that getting the word out is the first step in giving our students more knowledge that can help them in the long term.”
A number of students from all areas of campus showed up to support the campaign. According to the SGA release, after assisting at the event, freshman Chloe Textor said, “Helping out at KYR not only gave me the chance to support SGA, but it also helped me understand my role as a student here at UCF. This being my first year, I learned my rights in such a positive way, and then I had the honor of teaching other students, too.”
The “Know Your Rights” campaign will continue into the spring semester with full steam ahead. The importance of this event has been evidenced by the increasing number of support letters from students and administrators alike, according to the SGA press release.
