The basic bargain
Enrolling creates mutual obligations. The university commits to provide the instruction and services it advertised, to apply its own rules fairly and consistently, to protect your privacy, and to give you notice and a chance to respond before an adverse decision. You commit to do your own work, follow the published policies, meet deadlines, treat others with respect, and keep your contact information and account current.
Rights you can rely on
To be graded on the criteria in the syllabus; to appeal a grade on process grounds; to request disability accommodations and religious-observance accommodations; to a fair conduct process with notice and a hearing; to privacy of your education record (FERPA); to be free from discrimination and harassment; to report a concern without retaliation; and to a neutral resource (the Ombuds) when a process feels stuck.
Responsibilities that are easy to overlook
Reading your Porter email daily — it is the official channel and "I did not see it" is not a defense. Reading each syllabus as a contract. Meeting add/drop and petition deadlines. Keeping your address current within the required window. Knowing that your transcript and conduct history follow you.
Free expression and its limits
You have broad rights to speak, assemble, and demonstrate in the designated areas, and to disagree with faculty and the institution. Those rights do not cover disrupting a class or event, harassment, threats, or preventing others from speaking. The free-speech and demonstration policies spell out where and how.
Where it is all written
The student handbook is the plain-language overview; the code of conduct, the academic policies, the FERPA and nondiscrimination policies, and the grade-appeal and accommodation procedures are the specifics. When something matters, read the actual policy, not a summary — and if it is unclear, the office that owns it will explain it.
When a right is not honored
Start with the office or person involved, then their supervisor or the relevant appeal. The Student Ombuds can help you find the right path and understand your options without starting anything you did not ask to start. For discrimination or retaliation, the equity office; for a grade, the department then the college.
Fictional information
UW–Porter Falls is a work of parody. Every office, person, building, phone number and statistic on this page is invented; nothing here describes a real institution or a service you can actually contact.