The University Daily Kansan has an interesting look today at how the rights granted to KU students by the university compare to those of students at other universities in the Midwest.

The newspaper compared KU’s Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities to policies at Kansas State University, the University of Missouri, the University of Oklahoma and the University of Texas. And according to a comparative chart (which didn’t make it into the online version), KU appears to grant more rights to its students than any of the others.

Two notable rights KU students have that the others don’t are freedom of expression in the classroom (“subject only to the responsibility of the instructor to maintain order”) and a protection against receiving an academic punishment for committing a crime off campus.

Some other rights that KU grants that other universities don’t: the right to challenge a grade, protection from censorship or unreasonable search and seizure in student housing, and the right to distribute written materials on campus without prior approval. (Edit: Things might be a bit more complicated. Check my comment below.)

That Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities dates to 1970, when the Student Senate wrote it up and the chancellor approved it. Only KU and Oklahoma have such a document devoted to the rights of students, among the universities the Kansan looked at.

You all, of course, have the right to ensure people know what’s going on at KU by sending your KU news tips to merickson@ljworld.com.