With the Undergraduate Student Government (USG) Senate forming a committee to discuss drafting a students' bill of rights, one question remains:

Why? Why is this being done now? No problem or controversy seems to have sparked this idea. Are students -- the people USG represents -- really interested in this?

Senate's action is surely a good-natured attempt at trying to help students. But this method of educating about rights may be a bit lofty and ineffective. Some senators said the Office of Judicial Affairs' Code of Conduct outlines appropriate student behavior but doesn't address student rights.

This is true, but if these rights already exist, why draft a new document rivaling a federal document created hundreds of years ago? We are already covered by the U.S. Bill of Rights.

By creating a bill of rights, the document may come off more as a list of demands than a confirmation of student rights. A one-sided approach will not go over well with the Penn State administration, or even students, if all of their opinions are not heard and factored in.

Also, the perceived rights of some students are sure to be overlooked by creating such a list. With more than 40,000 undergraduate students alone at University Park, the student body is just as diverse as its needs and rights. Drafting a bill, while permanent, would be seen as just a piece of legislation that students would likely forget about within a few weeks.

This bill might also need the approval of the Penn State administration or University Faculty Senate, which will only make the process take much longer. If USG's goal is to educate students, representatives can streamline the process and directly pass on the knowledge, instead of bogging themselves down in a legislative quagmire that might take months -- or years -- to escape from.

It may be more effective to instead start an awareness campaign by distributing and posting pamphlets educating students about their rights. The Off-Campus Student Union, while not an official student organization, can prove its intentions of educating students by working with Senate to create these materials.

Senate seems to have the right motives in forming a bill of rights committee, but their intentions can be executed in more fair, effective and quicker ways.