Dozens protest COD's rewrite

Students wearing black tape across their mouths and shirts declaring "another Chaparral silenced" lined the windows surrounding the College of DuPage board meeting on Thursday.

They stood as sentinels of silent protest for nearly two hours as more than 30 teachers, students, business leaders and community members challenged the board of trustees' extensive rewrite of the school's policy manual without input.

Though Interim President Harold McAninch started the meeting by saying the board would delay its aggressive schedule and now work with campus groups, it did nothing to deter the protests.

"We the students under no circumstances will surrender our constitutional rights," student body president Allison Schraub said to thunderous applause.

One of the new policies removes a sentence declaring that students do not surrender their constitutional rights simply because they are students.

The tempest started after last month's board meeting when Trustees Kory Atkinson and Dave Carlin presented the rewritten policies, which the board urged approval of by December.

Some of the new, or revamped, policies affect students' rights, create variable tuition that charges more for classes in smaller programs, shift control of the school newspaper to the college president, and put trustees in charge of establishing curriculum as well as approving speakers and their programs.

None of that sat well with the more than 100 people who attended to protest the recommended additions.

"We fear that if these proposals are approved, COD will no longer be serving the community. Instead, it will be an institution governed by the personal agenda of a few board members," said Lisa Higgins, vice president of the College of DuPage Faculty Association.

The chamber's president, Tom Althoff, said variable tuition would affect training costs for businesses, and that giving the board exclusive control on potential speakers would affect resources shared between the college and area businesses.

McAninch said the board now plans to have a subcommittee, composed of trustees Atkinson and Carlin, meet with leaders of the campus constituent groups in December to hear their concerns and consider possible changes to the recommendations. He said trustees also want to give incoming president Robert Breuder a chance to have input, as well. Breuder starts work in January.

Carlin urged those concerned with the policies to continue submitting e-mails and letters.

"If individuals in the community can't make it to the meeting," he said, "I welcome comments."