Standards Revised, Clarified on Faculty Conduct and Academic Freedom

By VIC COX

Revised policies on UC faculty conduct and on academic freedom were enacted this past summer after months of discussion within the systemwide Academic Senate.

The Board of Regents on July 17 amended the Faculty Code of Conduct to effectively prohibit faculty from entering into consensual romantic or sexual relationships with any student for whom the faculty member has, or is likely to have, academic responsibility.

On July 30 the Assembly of the Academic Senate approved a new formulation of the principle of academic freedom that emphasized professional rights and obligations in teaching, scholarship, and the free expression of diverse opinions "inside and beyond the classroom." Incoming UC President Robert C. Dynes is expected to issue the policy revision soon.

"Both (revised policies) should remind faculty that there are boundaries that professionals in a university setting cannot cross," said Walter Yuen, chair of the UCSB division of the Academic Senate. "They are standards we have set for ourselves." Previously, the Faculty Code of Conduct only indirectly discouraged intimate relationships by instructing faculty to "avoid any exploitation, harassment, or discriminatory treatment of students." Now, it is explicit, Yuen noted: "Faculty have the responsibility to avoid this type of (romantic) relationship."

This amendment required final regental approval before being adopted as part of the University's academic personnel policy. A faculty member found in violation of the student conduct policy may face any of six different disciplinary sanctions, ranging from a letter of censure to dismissal.

"A Universitywide policy ensures that there will be a clear and consistent standard of behavior expected on every campus," said former UC Academic Senate Chair Gayle N. Binion, who worked on the policy change. "The very integrity of the University's educational mission is dependent on the accountability of the faculty member as a mentor, educator, and evaluator."

The new statement on academic freedom–the original was drafted in 1934–shifted UC's former emphasis on "dispassionate" scholarship concerned only with "the logic of the facts" to holding that this freedom "depends upon the quality of scholarship, which is to be assessed by the content...not by the motivations" of the faculty member.

It links academic freedom of inquiry, research, teaching, and expression to advancing knowledge, and recognizes that passionate inquiry and discussion within professional standards are part of the process. "It is important that the revised policy says that the faculty, as a body, decides what constitutes professional standards," added Yuen.

If a faculty member is challenged over an alleged violation of professional standards at UCSB, the aggrieved party could go to the Academic Senate's Committee on Academic Freedom for a hearing, he said.

For the texts of the changes to the Faculty Code of Conduct and policy on academic freedom, visit: <http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/senate>.