Appendix 39

Appendix 39: Academic Freedom and Professional Responsibility Acknowledgement

The California State Polytechnic University Pomona acknowledges the use of the 1940 Statement of Principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure with 1970 Interpretive Comments, the AAUP Statement on Professional Ethics, and other related resources in the preparation of this document.

1. Introduction

The California State Polytechnic University Pomona recognizes and endorses the following principles of academic freedom and professional responsibility:

1. the importance of academic freedom to the primary university mandates of dissemination, discovery, and advancement of knowledge;
   
   
2. the indispensability of the system of tenure to academic freedom and ensuring that those engaged in academic pursuits can effectively execute their responsibilities without obstruction or restraints;
   
   
3. the responsibility of the university to society for defending and safeguarding the principles of academic freedom and tenure as essential means for maintenance of intellectual liberty and high standards in education and in scholarship;
   
   
4. professional responsibility as the corollary to academic freedom and tenure, essential to university's mission.

It is through responsible professional conduct that faculty members promote and protect academic freedom.

2. Academic Freedom for Faculty

1. Institutions of higher education exist for the common good. The common good depends on unfettered search for truth and its open expression. It is essential that each faculty member be free to pursue scholarly inquiry without undue restrictions, and to voice and publish individual conclusions concerning the significance of evidence that the faculty member considers significant. Each faculty member must be free from the corrosive fear that others, inside or outside the university community, because their views may differ, may threaten the faculty member's professional career or the material benefits accruing from it.
   
   
2. In the classroom, academic freedom includes but is not limited to freedom of discussion and freedom to select course material, content, methodology, teaching effectiveness, and sequence within the extended course outline established in the official curriculum as approved by the applicable faculty.
   
   
3. In research, publication, and other scholarly activities, academic freedom --includes but is not limited to full freedom to select topics, methodologies, forums, approach and content.
   
   
4. When a faculty member speaks or writes as a private citizen, he or she shall be free from institutional censorship or discipline.

3. Ethical and Academic Responsibilities of Faculty Members

Faculty members have a responsibility to their academic institution, their profession, their students, their colleagues, and the society at large. They are expected to carry out this responsibility with honesty, integrity, and respect. They are also expected to support diversity and to do their part to maintain an environment that is free of harassment and discrimination. They should promote conditions of free enquiry.

1. As members of their academic institution faculty members should strive above all to be effective teachers and scholars. They should also share in the responsibility for governing the university. Faculty members should act in the interest. of the academic institution they serve.
   
   
2. As members of an academic profession faculty members should above all seek and state the truth as they see it. They should exercise critical self- discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge, and demand the same of others in their profession. They should not allow any subsidiary interest to compromise their freedom of enquiry.
   
   
3. As teachers and academic advisers faculty members should encourage the free pursuit of learning in their students, protect their students' academic freedom, and adhere to their proper role as intellectual guides and counselors. Faculty members must make every reasonable effort to foster honest academic conduct and to ensure that their evaluations of students reflect each student's true merit
   
   
4. As colleagues faculty members should hold themselves to high ethical standards, and expect the same of others. In the exchange of criticism and ideas faculty members must show due respect for the opinions of others.
   
   
5. As members of the community at large faculty members have the rights and obligations of other citizens. They should clearly indicate it when they speak or act as a private citizen, rather than as a representative of their institution.