Questions ranged from student rights and academic freedom to tuition increases, language courses offered and funding for community service opportunities.,”

The most recent Marquette Student Government sponsored forum with University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild was, according to Senior Vice President of Marquette University Greg Kliebhan, the "most academically informative forum thus far."

Questions ranged from student rights and academic freedom to tuition increases, language courses offered and funding for community service opportunities.

According to Marquette University President the Rev. Robert A. Wild, the proposed student group Students for Academic Freedom was denied official recognition as an organization by the Office of Student Development because several parts of its constitution infringed on the academic freedom of teachers.

"Academic freedom is something that applies only to teachers, the freedom that students have is the freedom of citizens," Wild said. "But academic freedom is associated with faculty as professionals and as individuals and does not apply to students."

What students do have, according to Wild, are rights including: the right to be treated equally and fairly and a number of other rights that are "spelled out in the student handbook."

According to Provost Madeline Wake, administrators are looking into making these rights more clear to students, as demonstrated by looking into putting, for example, the grade appeal process online.

On the topic of the tuition increase Wild commented, "We're a well respected and well ranked academic institution, but it takes money to maintain that."

According to Wild, even with the tuition hikes for next year Marquette will remain 19th in cost among the 28 Jesuit universities in the country. Additionally, only three schools, Rice, Baylor and Brigham Young, with academic rankings close to Marquette, have lower tuition costs than Marquette.

"Perhaps one solution to this tuition issue for students is the LIMO jobs available, because we could sure use more drivers," Kliebhan said.

According to Kliebhan, the reason that the LIMO service has been so slow this year is not the number of LIMOs available, but the number of drivers available.

Two students also raised concerns about the foreign language department and the lack of languages available for students to study, a concern which is shared by some administrators.

"Currently, we're working on adding Arabic and (Mandarin) Chinese to the curriculum here, and I share the sentiment that we need more foreign languages," Wake said. "In this world of global business we need to be providing more language opportunities."

Projects are in the works to collaborate with other universities, such as the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, to add more language opportunities. Video conferencing with other distant universities could also expand these opportunities, Wake said.

Several students conveyed concerns about service opportunities. The students said Marquette advertises community service, it does not provide enough opportunities in reality.

"The question of the opportunities and effectiveness of community services at Marquette is a new question," Wild said. "It may be a valid one, but this is the first I've ever heard about it and we will look into it."

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