What You Can Do

Voice Your Support

Sign the online petition (please add an asterisk (*) after your name if you are a UIUC student) and add your story to the Experience Notebook. Visit the SILA web site to join the email list and learn about the next tabling event, petition gathering, and meeting. If you are working on a student choice campaign at a different school, you can use our petition as proof of general support for this issue, but administrators respond best to signatures from their own institution.

Contact Your Administration

Email Chancellor Cantor and thank her for her support of the Student Choice Policy. If you have had a professor or academic unit be especially helpful on this issue, please thank them as well, and forward your letter to the appropriate department head.

At UIUC, the Student-Faculty Senate made the ultimate decision over the Student-Choice Policy. If you are trying to get a Student Choice policy passed at your school, the first step should probably be to find out who is in charge of setting educational policy there. We began the campaign by finding a student senator to present our case to the student senate, which resulted in an exploratory committee where we could make our case. The student senate then voted to recommend that the full senate address the issue. From there it went to the educational policy commitee to be researched further, and for the text to be written before a final vote in the full senate. Administration and senator support is crucial in getting a policy like this to be taken seriously and passed. We had a lot of success with getting articles in local papers and starting a letter writing campaign. Enough people contacted our chancellor to get her to put pressure on administrators and senators to address the issue.

Ask for Alternatives

If you are in a class that includes dissection, contact your professor as soon as possible, preferably in writing (so that you'll have a record of it). See the policy as a guide for how you should go about this process. Keep in mind that you are not asking for permission; this is your right by law if you object on ethical or religious grounds, and the UIUC policy provides further ground to support your request if you are a student there. Request that a non-animal alternative be provided and that you be excused from witnessing the portion of the lab in which the animal is dissected or vivisected. Show up for the animal lab, but excuse yourself once the actual lab begins.

If your instructor refuses to accommodate you, submit, in writing, an appeal based on the violation of your religious beliefs. [1]

Email info@dissectionchoice.org for any legal advice you may need, or to share any experiences you've had with dissection, either positive or negative.

Spread the Word

Talk to friends, classmates, instructors, and alumni about the policy and urge them to take action with you. If you are a student at another school, consider starting your own campaign. As more of these policies are passed, and more lawsuits are won, schools will start realizing that it's in their best interest to have a framework set up to deal with students with objections to dissection. The policy that we proposed and that was initially passed by student government before undergoing revision (which provides an example of a stronger policy) can be found here. Aim high, whatever you suggest will certainly become more moderate as it is considered by the school, so start with a policy that you feel meets all your needs.

From the Code of Policies and Regulations Applying to All Students: "Any student may appeal in writing an instructor's adverse decision to a request based on religious beliefs, observances, and practices to the dean of his or her college or to the director or dean of his or her school or institute (if such school or institute is organized as a separate unit). Before taking action, the dean or director should request that the instructor explain his or her denial in writing."

From http://www.provost.uiuc.edu/campusconduct/religion.html: "Similar to reasonable accommodations provided to qualified persons with disabilities, the University will provide a reasonable accommodation based on a persons sincerely held religious belief, unless the University believes that providing such an accommodation would create an undue hardship. The accommodation request imposes responsibilities and obligations on both the individual requesting the accommodation and the University. For example, the person requesting the accommodation is obligated to make the University aware of his or her need for a religious accommodation. Once a request is made, the University will explore reasonable accommodations to address the person’s religious belief or practice, unless, again, the request creates an undue hardship. The person requesting the accommodation is obligated to cooperate with the University’s attempts to accommodate their request. The University is not obligated to provide the accommodation preferred by the individual, as long as the accommodation it does provide effectively eliminates any religious conflict."