Article III - Guiding Principles

The faculty support the following principles:

SECTION 1 - Mission, Vision and Values

Mission: To create exemplary citizens and leaders to serve the nation and the world.
Vision: To bring strength to our nation and to help humanity.
Values: We honor our shared values by holding ourselves and each other accountable to:

Create a strong sense of community
Student success: The success of each and every student is prioritized
Thoughtful use of resources, including ourselves
Engage with curiosity
Open doors to opportunity

SECTION 2 - Professional Ethics

All members of the faculty, whether tenured or not, with full-time or part-time appointments, including those who are reappointed for a specific term after retirement, are responsible for assuming a positive role in upholding academic freedom and the norms of the institution. The pertinent responsibilities of all members of the faculty as related to academic freedom are as follows:

Faculty members are responsible for exemplifying and supporting the intellectual freedoms of teaching, expression, research, and debate in the interest of the common good and reasoned inquiry.
Faculty members are responsible for taking the initiative, working with 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.
Faculty members are responsible for the promotion of adherence to norms essential to the academic atmosphere.
Faculty members, 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, faculty members 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.
Faculty members encourage the free pursuit of learning in their students. They hold before them the best scholarly standards of their discipline. Faculty members demonstrate respect for students as individuals and adhere to their proper roles as intellectual guides and advisors. Faculty members 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. Faculty members shall not engage in any exploitation, harassment, or discriminatory treatment as set forth in the Employee Handbook and relevant College policy, and all applicable laws, rules, ordinances, or regulations.
As colleagues, faculty members have obligations that derive from common membership in the community of scholars.
Faculty members do not discriminate against or harass colleagues. They respect and defend the free inquiry of associates. In the exchange of criticism and ideas, faculty members show respect for the opinion of others. Faculty members accept their share of faculty responsibilities for the governance of their institution.
As members of an academic institution, faculty members seek above all to be effective teachers and scholars. Although faculty members observe the stated policies and procedures of the institution, they maintain their right to criticize and seek revision. Faculty members give due regard to their paramount responsibilities within their institution in determining the amount and character of work done outside it. Notwithstanding the foregoing, faculty members shall always comply with all applicable laws, rules, ordinances, or regulations.
As members of their community, faculty members have the rights and obligations of other citizens. Faculty members 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 the College. As citizens engaged in a profession that depends upon freedom for its health and integrity, members have a particular obligation to promote conditions of free inquiry and to further public understanding of academic freedom.

SECTION 3 - Conflicts of Interest

For specific definitions and descriptions with respect to conflicts of interest, see the Keuka College Employee Handbook.

Conflict of Commitment or Outside Employment - 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 a 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.

SECTION 4 - Academic Freedom and Responsibilities

All members of the faculty, whether tenured or not, with full-time or part-time appointments, including those who are reappointed for a specific term after the age of retirement, are entitled to academic freedom as set forth below:

The faculty member is entitled to full freedom in research and in the publication of the results, subject to the adequate performance of their other academic duties, but research for pecuniary return should be based upon an understanding with the authorities of the institution.
The faculty member is entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful to not introduce into their teaching controversial matters that have no relation to their subject.
The faculty member is a citizen, a member of a learned profession, and an employee of an educational institution. When they speak or write as a citizen, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their position in the community imposes obligations.

That said, nothing in this policy is intended to restrict the College's discretion to take appropriate action, up to and including corrective or disciplinary action, for the conduct of faculty members that it finds to violate the College's EEO, antidiscrimination, harassment, and retaliation policies, or any applicable laws, rules, ordinances, or regulations that otherwise negatively impact the learning environment of the students the College serves.

SECTION 5 - Academic Integrity

The faculty members of Keuka College believe that the highest standards of academic integrity must be maintained at every point in the course of study and in all types of scholarly activities. To promote these standards of academic integrity and to ensure their attainment in a manner that protects the academic freedom and responsibility of the instructor and the academic rights and freedoms of the students, the Regulations and Procedures on Standards of Academic Rights, Freedom, and Responsibility are established. See Part F - Article V.

SECTION 6 - Other Freedoms and Responsibilities

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 that injure individuals, damage institutional facilities, or disrupt the classes 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.
Students are entitled to an atmosphere conducive to learning and to even-handed treatment in all aspects of the faculty-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 the course. The student should not be forced by the authority inherent in the instructional role to make personal choices as to political action or their 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.
It is a faculty member's mastery of their subject and their own scholarship that entitles them to their classroom and to freedom in the presentation of their subject. Thus, it is improper for a faculty member to persistently include material that has no relation to their subject or to fail to present the subject matter of their course as announced to students and as approved by the faculty in their collective responsibility for the curriculum.
Because academic freedom has traditionally included the faculty member'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 faculty member's attention to their obligations as a citizen and moral agent precludes the fulfillment of substantial academic obligations, they cannot escape the responsibility of that choice but should either request a leave of absence or resign their academic position.

SECTION 7 - Procedures for Non-Reappointment

See Part E - Article I

SECTION 8 - Procedural Standards for Faculty Dismissal Proceedings

See Part E and Appendix M.

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PART A - ORGANIZATION OF THE COLLEGE