UF's Student Senate turned its attention toward helping graduate students at its Tuesday night meeting.
Student Senate President Kevin Reilly announced the creation of a committee designed to tackle issues facing graduate students.
"Graduate students make up a large portion of our university, and they should be treated with dignity and respect," Reilly said.
The primary goal of the committee is to work with the Graduate Student Council to ensure passage of a bill of rights for graduate students, he said.
Ranaldo Allen, chairman of the committee, said the bill of rights must pass through the council and then through the Faculty Senate.
The 12-point bill was mainly drafted because some graduate students serving as teaching assistants or research assistants said they were bullied by their faculty supervisors, Allen said.
He said the bill also touches on issues such as stopping faculty from taking graduate students' work, fostering respect and collegiality, providing adequate office space and encouraging the expression of ideas that might clash with those of a faculty adviser.
