ACADEMIC RIGHTS

AND

RESPONSIBILITIES

A Statement on Faculty Ethics

Developed by the LAVC Senate Ad Hoc Ethics Committee

Approved by the LAVC Academic Senate on December 17, 1992

 

1987 AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF UNIVERSITY PROFESSORS STATEMENT ON PROFESSIONAL ETHICS:

I. Community college 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 subjects 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. Although faculty members may follow subsidiary interests, these interests must never seriously hamper or compromise their freedom of inquiry.

 

II. As teachers, 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 the student as an individual, and adhere to their proper role as intellectual guides and counselors. Faculty members make every reasonable effort to foster honest academic conduct and to assure that evaluation of students reflects their true merit. They respect the confidential nature of the relationship between faculty member and student. They avoid any exploitation of students for private advantage and acknowledge significant assistance from them. They protect the academic freedom of students.

 

III. 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 due respect for the opinions of others. Faculty members acknowledge their academic debts and strive to be objective in their professional judgment of colleagues. Faculty members accept their share of faculty responsibilities for the governance of their institution.

 

IV. As members of an academic institution, faculty members seek above all to be effective teachers and scholars. Although faculty members observe the stated regulations of their institutions, provided the regulations do not contravene academic freedom, 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. When considering the interruption or termination of their service, faculty members recognize the effect of their decisions upon the program of the institution and give due notice of their intentions.

 

V. As members of their community, faculty members have the rights and obligations of all citizens. Faculty members measure the urgency of these obligations in the light of their responsibilities to their subject areas, to their students, to their profession, and to their institutions. When they speak or act as private persons they avoid creating the impression that they speak or act for their colleges or universities. As citizens engaged in a profession that depends upon freedom for its health and integrity, faculty members have a particular obligation to promote conditions of free inquiry and to further public understanding of academic freedom.

FACULTY PERFORMANCE

At Valley College--as at all institutions--any freedom to teach and learn carries corresponding responsibility to preserve that freedom for oneself and for all others. All faculty members must recognize--or must be reminded--of their obligations to their subjects and to knowledge to teaching and learning, to colleagues, to the college, and to the community. Faculty members at Valley College have:

1. the right and freedom to teach, but the responsibility to study;

2. the right and freedom to teach all students, but the responsibility to teach all students;

3. the right and freedom to teach what they hold to be true, but the responsibility to teach that others may hold something else to be true;

4. the right and freedom to teach without disruption in the place and at the time students expect, but the responsibility not to disrupt the teaching and learning of others;

5. the right and freedom to teach creatively and in the manner best suited to them, but the responsibility to teach objectively and in a manner considerate of students and other teachers;

6. the right and freedom to challenge students and to set and maintain scholarly standards, but the responsibility to respect the students right to learn, to ask questions, to defend beliefs, to express opinions, or to disagree without repression or reprisal;

7. the right and freedom to expect and to offer professional assistance for maintaining professional standards, but the responsibility to accept and to give professional assistance, courteously and tactfully, for maintaining professional standards;

8. the right and freedom to expect and to demand professional honesty of colleagues, but the responsibility to be professionally honest and to insist upon honesty from others;

9. the right and freedom to disagree with colleagues, but the responsibility to accept return disagreement without personal attack or denigration;

10. the right and freedom to defend academic freedom for those with whom they agree, but the responsibility to defend academic freedom for those with whom they disagree;

11. the right and freedom to defend from traditional sources of pressure, but the responsibility to defend academic freedom from other sources of restrictive pressures--including one's own colleagues--as social changes give rise to new or different pressure groups;

12. the right and freedom to share in the pursuits of the college and to disagree with pursuits and purposes of the college, but the responsibility to participate in the determining of those pursuits, to voice disagreement to the appropriate person, group, or office, and to participate in the governance of the college by being informed, by voting in faculty elections, by serving on faculty committees and by supporting organizations designed to meet the needs of the college community;

13. the right and freedom to function as private citizens without fear of institutional censorship, but the responsibility to accept the obligations--imposed by their profession--of accuracy, restraint, and respect for the opinions of others, and to state clearly to other citizens when they are not an official spokesperson for the college;

14. the right and freedom to appear and to speak freely in public, but the responsibility to refrain from self-seeking use of the special position accorded the teacher by our society;

15. the right and freedom to engage in any lawful political, religious, or social activity, but the responsibility to separate such activities from their teaching.

 

BREACH OF PROFESSIONAL ETHICS PROCEDURE

In the enjoyment and exercise of such rights and responsibilities, the faculty member supports the academic function of the college and does nothing to interfere with or to disrupt learning or teaching or administration of the college. Any action that is harmful to or disruptive of the academic process in direct and demonstrable manner may be brought before the Academic Senate. Lest that procedure in itself become a breach of professional ethics, the following guidelines for due process are established:

Nothing herein shall preclude seeking redress of grievances in a court of law.