137.8 Individual Rights and Responsibilities

137.8 Individual Rights and Responsibilities

A. Background

Furman University believes that academic freedom is essential to learning and the pursuit of truth and is necessary for a community of scholars.

B. Policy

Furman University subscribes to the statement on Academic Freedom and Tenure adopted jointly in 1940 by the Association of American Colleges and the American Association of University Professors which states in part that "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...; the teacher is entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing his/her subject...; the teacher is entitled to his/her political rights as a citizen and should be free from institutional censorship or discipline." For the full text, see Association of American Colleges Bulletin, 27 (1941), 127-129, or American Association of University Professors Bulletin, 27 (1941), 40-43. For recent interpretations, see the "1972 Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure," AAUP Bulletin, 58 (December, 1972), 428-433.

C. Guidelines

1. Furman University has a Christian heritage. Those employed by the University to teach are expected to exhibit an exemplary life before the students and the public both inside and outside the college.

2. The faculty member should be careful not to introduce into his or her teaching controversial matter which has no relation to his or her subject.

3. The faculty member should remember that he or she is also a "member of a learned profession and an officer of an educational institution" and that "his or her special position in the community imposes special obligations. Hence he or she 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 he or she is not an institutional spokesman."

4. The University will not accept any external funding in the form of gifts, grants or contracts that implies external control or limits the academic freedom of individual faculty members (guaranteed in the AAUP statements above) in the University's fulfilling the terms of the gifts, grants or contractual obligations.

5. See also entries on "Professional Ethics" (File 122.1), "Due Process" (File 131.5), and "Political Activity" (File 137.3).

...........................