2023 Laws of Puerto Rico › TITLE EIGHTEEN - Education (§§ 1 — 3510-3520) › PART II - University of Puerto Rico (§§ 601 — 856b) › Chapter 40 - University of Puerto Rico Act (§§ 601 — 614) › § 609 - Students

(a) As students and as collaborators in the University’s mission of culture and service, the students are members of the academic community. They shall therefore enjoy the right to participate effectively in the life of that community and shall have all the duties of moral and intellectual responsibility that this naturally entails.
(b) The General Student Regulation shall be approved by the Board of Trustees upon the proposal of the University Board; set forth the rights and duties of students; contain those provisions that ensure the orderliness, safety, and normalcy of the institutional endeavor; and guarantee the full, direct, free, and democratic participation and expression of all students.
The Regulation shall also set forth the establishment of a General Student Council in each university campus, a Student Council in each faculty, and student committees that shall advise the bodies in charge of providing services and assistance to students. The General Student Council shall be constituted by members of the governing bodies of the Student Councils of each faculty in order to gather the opinions about the problems that students face and channel the ideas and initiatives they contribute to guarantee and foster-at all times-a favorable environment for academic achievement in the University. These Councils shall be the only ones recognized by university entities as the sole official representation of students, in order to channel the democratic, ample, free, and full participation of all students. Their members shall be elected only by the individual electronic vote of all students. The Regulation shall set forth the attributions of these bodies and the constitution of the Student Council of each faculty. However, any determination, decision, agreement, expression, or similar issue of any of the councils which, directly or indirectly, affects the students shall require the approval of the majority of the total number of students who participate in the consultations, to be conducted pursuant to the provisions of this subsection. Only determinations, decisions, agreements, expressions, or similar issues made by students pursuant to the provisions of this subsection can be recognized as such by university authorities.
Such consultations shall be conducted only through the individual electronic vote of each properly enrolled student, for which a system that provides a term of not less than three (3) calendar days to cast such electronic vote shall be established. All consultations to be conducted shall be notified individually to all students daily by email to the address assigned to each student by the university, beginning three (3) days before the consultation takes place and until the last day of the consultation.
For purposes of this chapter, electronic votes shall be cast as instructed on the webpage developed to such ends, which shall guarantee the secrecy of the vote. For purposes of this section, the term majority shall mean half (½) the students participating in the consultations plus one (1). In the event that the consultation involves a choice between two (2) or more alternatives, the alternative that obtains the most votes shall be recognized as the official expression.
(c) The respective Dean of Students, with the collaboration of a student committee constituted by a representative of each faculty, shall prepare a Draft of the Student Regulations for the corresponding university campus or college, which shall first be remitted to the Academic Senate for its consideration and then sent to the University Board and to the Board of Trustees for their final approval.
(d) The Board of Trustees may, at its discretion, adopt, modify, amend or repeal regulations granting student participation with voice and voice and vote in all or some university campuses and colleges or other institutional units of the University at the meetings of the Faculty and Departments, the Academic Senates and the Administrative and University Boards, on the dates, in the way and manner and to the extent that the Board of Trustees may deem most convenient. The Board of Trustees may likewise grant such student participation in committees at Faculty, Department or Division levels, as well as in Special Committees on disciplinary matters and other university activities.
History —Jan. 20, 1966, No. 1, p. 85, § 10; June 9, 1972, No. 10, p. 367; Aug. 7, 1998, No. 186, § 7; Aug. 11, 2010, No. 128, § 5.