I. Faculty Personnel Policies: Opening Contractual Statement
A. Refer to Employee Handbook for General Employment Information including Equal Opportunity, Nondiscrimination, and other Policies. Faculty are subject to all relevant policies contained in the Employee Handbook.
The Faculty and the Board of Trustees support the principles outlined in the following AAUP Statements.
- Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure (1940)
1. Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure (1940)
2. Statement on Procedural Standards in Faculty Dismissal Proceedings (1958)
3. Standards for Notice of Non-reappointment (1964)
4. 1972 Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure
5. Statement on Professional Ethics (1987)
6. Statement on Freedom and Responsibility (1990)
B. General Faculty Obligations, Rights, and Code of Ethics
1. Academic Freedom and Responsibility
All members of the Faculty, whether tenured or not, with full-time or part-time appointments, including those who are re-appointed for a specific term after the age of retirement, are entitled to academic freedom as set forth in the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure, formulated by the Association of American Colleges and Universities and the American Association of University Professors, adopted by the Faculty and the Board of Trustees of the institution. The pertinent provisions of the Statement as related to academic freedom are quoted as follows:
a. The teacher is entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, subject to the adequate performance of his/her other academic duties; but research for pecuniary return should be based upon an understanding with the authorities of the institution.
b. The teacher is entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing his/her subject, but s/he should be careful to not introduce into his/her teaching controversial matter that has no relation to his/her subject.
c. The college or university teacher is a citizen, a member of a learned profession, and an officer of an educational institution. When s/he speaks or writes as a citizen, s/he should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but his/her special position in the community imposes special obligations. As a person of learning and an education officer, s/he should remember that the public may judge his/her profession and his/her institution by his/her utterances. Hence, s/he should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that s/he is not an institutional spokesperson.
2. Statement of Professional Ethics
All members of the Faculty, whether tenured or not, with full-time or part-time appointments, including those who are re-appointed for a specified term after retirement, are responsible to assume a positive role in upholding academic freedoms and norms of the institution. The pertinent responsibilities of all members of the Faculty as related to academic freedoms are as follows:
a. The Faculty members are responsible to exemplify and support the intellectual freedoms of teaching, expression, research, and debate in the interests of the common good and reasoned inquiry.
b. The Faculty members are responsible to take the initiative, working with the administration and other components of the institution, to develop and maintain an atmosphere of freedom, commitment to academic inquiry, respect for the academic rights of others, and the promotion of public understanding of academic freedom.
c. The Faculty members are responsible for assuming a positive role as guardians of academic values against unjustified assaults from their own members.
d. The Faculty members are responsible for exercising preventative as well as disciplinary sanctions of approbative nature in relation to their own members. They are to share responsibility in promotion of adherence to norms essential to the academic atmosphere.
e. In all cases where academic freedom and responsibility are involved, the Faculty members are to be guided by the additional principles as set forth in the 1987 Statement of Professional Ethics (and the 1990 A Statement of the Association’s Council: Freedom and Responsibility), which was formulated by the American Association of University Professors, and adopted by the Faculty and the Board of Trustees of the institution.
f. Professors, guided by a deep conviction of the worth and dignity of the advancement of knowledge, recognize the special responsibilities placed upon them. Their primary responsibility to their subject is to seek and to state the truth as they see it. To this end, professors devote their energies to developing and improving their scholarly competence. They accept the obligation to exercise critical self-discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge. They practice intellectual honesty. Although professors may follow subsidiary interests, these interests must never seriously hamper or compromise their freedom of inquiry.
g. As teachers, professors encourage the free pursuit of learning in their students. They hold before them the best scholarly standards of their discipline. Professors demonstrate respect for students as individuals, and adhere to their proper roles as intellectual guides and counselors. Professors make every reasonable effort to foster honest academic conduct and to ensure that their
evaluations of students reflect each student’s true merit. They respect the confidential nature of the relationship between professor and student. They avoid any exploitation, harassment, or discriminatory treatment of students. They acknowledge significant academic or scholarly assistance from them. They protect their academic freedom.
h. As colleagues, professors have obligations that derive from common membership in the community of scholars. Professors do not discriminate against or harass colleagues. They respect and defend the free inquiry of associates. In the exchange of criticism and ideas, professors show due respect for the opinion of others. Professors acknowledge academic debt and strive to be objective in their professional judgment of colleagues. Professors accept their share of Faculty responsibilities for the governance of their institution.
i. As members of an academic institution, professors seek above all to be effective teachers and scholars. Although professors observe the stated regulations of the institution, provided the regulations do not contravene academic freedom, they maintain their right to criticize and seek revision. Professors give due regard to their paramount responsibilities within their institution in determining the amount and character of work done outside it. When considering the interruption or termination of their service, professors recognize the effect of that decision upon the programs of the institution and give due notice of their intentions.
j. As members of their community, professors have the rights and obligations of other citizens. Professors measure the urgency of these obligations in the light of their responsibilities to their subject, to their students, to their profession, and to their institution. When they speak or act as a private person, they avoid creating the impression of speaking or acting for their college or university. As citizens engaged in a profession that depends upon freedom for its health and integrity, professors have a particular obligation to promote conditions of free inquiry and to further public understanding of academic freedom.
3. Statement on Freedom and Responsibility
a. Membership in the academic community imposes on students, Faculty members, administrators, and trustees an obligation to respect the dignity of others, to acknowledge their right to express differing opinions, and to foster and defend intellectual honesty, freedom of inquiry and instruction, and free expression on and off the campus. The expression of dissent and the attempt to produce change, therefore, may not be carried out in ways which injure individuals or damage institutional facilities or disrupt the classes of one’s teachers or colleagues. Speakers on campus must not only be protected from violence, but given an opportunity to be heard. Those who seek to call attention to grievances must not do so in ways that significantly impede the functions of the institution.
b. Students are entitled to an atmosphere conducive to learning and to even- handed treatment in all aspects of the teacher-student relationship. Faculty members may not refuse to enroll or teach students on the grounds of their beliefs or the possible uses to which they may put the knowledge to be gained in a course. The student should not be forced by the authority inherent in the instructional role to make particular personal choices as to political action or his own part in society. Evaluation of students and the award of credit must be based on academic performance professionally judged and not on matters irrelevant to that performance, whether personality, race, religion, degree of political activism, or personal belief.
c. It is a teacher’s mastery of his/her subject and his/her own scholarship that entitles him/her to his/her classroom and to freedom in the presentation of his/her subject. Thus, it is improper for an instructor persistently to intrude material that has no relation to his/her subject, or to fail to present the subject matter of his/her course as announced to his students and as approved by the Faculty in their collective responsibility for the curriculum.
d. Because academic freedom has traditionally included the instructor’s full freedom as a citizen, most Faculty members face no insoluble conflicts between the claims of politics, social action, and conscience, on the one hand, and the claims and expectations of their students, colleagues, and institution on the other. If such conflicts become acute, and the instructor’s attention to his obligations as a citizen and moral agent precludes the fulfillment of substantial academic obligations, he cannot escape the responsibility of that choice, but should either request a leave of absence or resign his academic position.
4. Statement on Conflicts of Interest
A. Purpose and Values
Faculty members of Keuka College serve the educational and public purposes to which Keuka College is dedicated. Accordingly, all such individuals of the College community have a clear obligation to conduct the affairs of the College in a manner consistent with those purposes and to make all decisions on the basis of a desire to promote the best interests of the institution, the mission of the College, and the high ethical standards to which we aspire.
This policy recognizes and affirms the settled tradition and expectation that members of the Faculty will conduct their relationships with one another, other members of the College community, and the larger society with candor and integrity. They are informed by and consistent with the AAUP statement on conflict of interest (1990). These policies and procedures are intended to permit Faculty members to identify, evaluate, and correct or remove real, apparent, and potential conflicts of interest and commitment. The appearance that a conflict may be present may be as important as the reality. Accordingly, the first essential step in all of the procedures set forth below is disclosure and discussion.
B. Definitions and Descriptions
- For specific definitions and descriptions with respect to conflicts of interest, see the Employee Handbook.
- Conflict of Commitment
A Conflict of Commitment relates to an individual’s distribution of effort between College employment or Faculty appointment and commitment to external business activities or employment, external professional activities, or personal activities. It is possible to have a Conflict of Commitment even if the individual does not receive compensation for the external activity. External activities may include employment outside the College, involvement with professional societies, participation related to review panels, education meetings, community service, conferences, consulting, other professional activities, and business activities related to outside entities including start-up companies.
A Conflict of Commitment arises when the external activities burden or interfere with the College member’s primary obligations and commitments to the College. It is the policy of the College that all full-time Faculty and staff members are expected to devote their primary professional loyalty, time, and energy to their position at Keuka College.
Assessment of a Conflict of Commitment is more difficult than assessment of a Conflict of Interest. Generally, such conflicts will be apparent in the failure of individuals to discharge fully the role and duties expected of them. These may include commitments that involve frequent or prolonged absence from the College on non-College business or commitments that engage a substantial portion of the time that the Faculty member is expected to spend in College-related activities and which, thereby, dilute the amount or quality of participation in the instructional, scholarly, or administrative work of the College.
- Conflict Disclosure and Avoidance
Every Faculty member is expected to evaluate and arrange their external interests and commitments in order to avoid compromising their ability to carry out their primary obligations to the College. First of all, conflicts should be avoided or resolved through the exercise of individual judgment or discretion. For Specific Conflict Disclosure and Avoidance policies and examples, see the Employee Handbook.