The report outlines rules and regulations governing aspects such as disciplinary processes, academic integrity and student privacy.

ASMSU, MSU’s undergraduate student government, has been working with university officials to revise and update the report, which is expected to be passed to the University Committee on Student Affairs, or UCSA, for consideration within the next two weeks, Currier said.

“This new change should make (the report) more readable so that more students feel comfortable (reading it),” she said. “Most MSU students have never read the AFR, which is really sad because it’s your rights at Michigan State.”

Currier said ASMSU most likely will conduct some sort of campaign to inform students the document has been updated and is easier to read, but nothing has been decided since the project is still in preliminary stages. She said the report also is included in the Student Life handbook and is given to every student living in dormitories.

Although ASMSU officials stressed the importance of the document, some students said they weren’t sure they’d read a revised copy of it. Ashley Porter, an MSU senior majoring in Spanish and comparative cultures and politics, said she is not more inclined to read the report based on improved readability.

“I’d really only read (the report) if I had reason to … like if I got in trouble for any reason or anyone told me I should,” she said.

Kristine Zayko, deputy general counsel for the university, said the updates to the report reflect an ongoing effort at MSU to ensure all policies are current and more modernized.

Zayko, who has been working to draft the report’s new language, said the group has been combing the AFR in search of areas that might require changes and has been on the lookout for fallacies, redundancies and loose ends.

“There’s a lot of cleanup, I would call it,” she said.

“We’re taking out things that have become out of date or the name of the office has changed or doesn’t exist anymore.
We want to make sure everything is consistent in the document.”

ASMSU spokesperson Portia McKenzie said changes are also being made to include various campus groups that were not covered in the 1967 version of the report.

“If you just think about the language that may have been used in the 1960s, it may not have been all-inclusive,” McKenzie said. “Updating it from that language will make it more inclusive of different groups on campus.”

Zayko said it is important to note the changes the group has made to the report are proposals, are not set in stone and are contingent on approval from the UCSA.

“It has a long road ahead of it,” she said. “We’ve got a couple more things to do. It’s certainly still in the draft stage.”

Students still will have the final say, Currier said, because the Academic Assembly is the last stop before the document is presented to the Board of Trustees for approval.

“MSU students pretty much have the final say before it goes on to become passed into policy,” she said. “I think people will be really happy with the changes.”