Policy: 6.9 Academic Freedom and Responsibilities

Policy: 6.9 Academic Freedom and Responsibilities

Adoption Date: August 14, 1996  Revised

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Public institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good.  The common good is dependent upon a free search for truth and its free expression.  The college district is committed to the principle that the faculty members must be free to pursue scholarly inquiry without undue restriction and to vote and publish conclusions concerning the significance of evidence that they consider relevant.  Faculty members may be assured that their professional careers or resultant material benefits will not be jeopardized because of differences of opinion with anyone inside or outside the district.

A.  Faculty members are entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of its results, subject to the adequate performance of academic duties, but research for pecuniary return must be undertaken only with the prior approval from the appropriate administrator.

B.  Faculty members are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their discipline, but they should refrain from introducing controversial matter bearing no relationship to the subject.

C.  Faculty members are citizens, members of a learned profession, and members of an educational community.  Speaking or writing as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their special position in the community is recognized as imposing special obligations.  As individuals of learning and as members of an educational community, instructors should understand that the public may judge the profession and the institution by their utterances, appearance, and  actions.  It is therefore expected that they will at all times be accurate, exercise appropriate restraint, show respect for the opinions of others, and conduct themselves in a professional manner.

D.  When expressing themselves as private citizens, faculty members should indicate that they are not representing the college district.

E.  The fundamental responsibilities of faculty members as teachers and scholars include maintenance of competence in their fields of specialization and the exhibition of such competence       in lectures, discussions, and publications