Students for Academic Freedom has been denied recognition as a student organization on campus because of objections from the Office of Student Development about the group's constitution and proposed activities.

OSD made the decision after consulting with Provost Madeline Wake, Vice President of Student Affairs the Rev. Andrew Thon and the Committee on Faculty.

OSD relayed the decision to Chuck Rickert, head of SAF and a College of Business Administration senior, on Monday in a letter and further discussed it with him in a meeting, according to Mark McCarthy, assistant vice president of student affairs and dean of student development.

The university "objected to types of programming and activities the group proposed as some of their functions," McCarthy said. "Such activities include reading lists, academic conferences and classroom speakers, all of which are curricular decisions within the purview of faculty.

"There were concerns in terms of having this organization be the monitoring group for these types of things," McCarthy said. "This issue has a lot to do with the rights of faculty members."

SAF's constitution did not contain references to the criteria that would be used to judge unprofessional faculty behavior, how observers would be trained or how faculty should respond, according to Brigid O'Brien Miller, director of university communication.

OSD "looked at how the proposed actions and elements of the constitution would end up impacting campus and asked, 'Will it enhance the learning environment?,'" Miller said. "They concluded that a number of the programs and events in the proposed constitution appear to thwart, rather than enhance, academic freedom of faculty. It could undermine the structures already in place, such as professor evaluations."

Rickert was disappointed with the decision.

"Today was a defeat for the free marketplace of ideas at Marquette," Rickert said. "It's sad universities today are no longer places of civil and reasoned debate among different viewpoints."

According to McCarthy, Marquette values academic freedom by having a statement in the faculty handbook on what academic freedom means and offers students many outlets in which to address their concerns.

Rickert said OSD was not helpful in addressing his concerns.

"This response means that throughout the course of 18 weeks OSD clearly did not hear what I was saying because they were either not listening or were trying to frame debates in ways SAF never meant," Rickert said. "From the moment SAF applied, OSD was only looking for reasons to deny it. They were not helpful or specific on what to modify in our constitution and took two months to even give an initial opinion."

The group first applied for recognition in October, Rickert said.

"This decision clearly shows that the administration appears to be taking the position that academic freedom at Marquette is inconsistent with allowing the criticism of Marquette's liberal bias by conservatives," said John McAdams, associate professor of political science and the faculty adviser for SAF. "Academia protects women and minorities from offensive comments but does not want to do the same for conservative students."

However, according to Rickert, "SAF is a nonpartisan group that both political views could have and would have supported. Its goal is to empower students to have more control of their lives in the academic sphere…to advocate a student bill of rights, or contract from the administration to the students and vice versa."

SAF can reorganize and provide another draft of its constitution for consideration, McCarthy said.

Rickert said the organization would tweak some of the wording in its constitution-changing 'educate' to 'advocate,' for example to match what other organizations such as the Gay/Straight Alliance have done to gain approval in the past.