'Prepared by a Joint Drafting Committee representing the American
Association of University Professors, U.S. National Student Association,
Association of American Colleges, National Association of Student Personnel
Administrators and National Association of Women Deans and Counselors.
Preamble
Academic institutions exist for the transmission of knowledge, the pursuit of
truth, the development of students and the general well-being of society. Free
inquiry and free expression are indispensable to the attainment of these goals. As
members of the academic community, students should be encouraged to develop
the capacity for critical judgment and to engage in a sustained and independent
search for truth. Institutional procedures for achieving these purposes may vary
from campus to campus, but the minimal standards of academic freedom of
students outlined below are essential to any community of scholars.
Freedom to teach and freedom to learn are inseparable facets of academic
freedom. The freedom to learn depends upon appropriate opportunities and
conditions in the classroom, on the campus, and in the larger community.
Students should exercise their freedom with responsibility.
The responsibility to secure and to respect general conditions conducive to the
freedom to learn is shared by all members of the academic community. Each
college and university has a duty to develop policies and procedures which
provide and safeguard this freedom. Such policies and procedures should be
developed at each institutions within the framework of general standards and
with the broadest possible participation of the members of the academic
community. The purpose of this statement is to enumerate the essential
provisions for student freedom to learn.
I. Freedom of Access to Higher Education
The admissions policies of each college and university are a matter of
institutional choice provided that each college and university makes clear the
characteristics and expectations of students which it considers relevant to success
in the institution's program. While church-reldted institutions may give admission
preference to students of their own persuasion, such a preference should be
clearly and publicly stated. Under no circumstances should a student be barred
from admission to a particular institution on the basis of race. Thus, within the
limits of its facilities, each college and university should use their influence to
secure equal access for all students to public facilities in the local community.
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11. In the Classroom
The professor in the classroom and in conference should encourage free
discussion, inquiry, and expression. Student performance should be evaluated
solely on an academic basis, not on opinions or conduct in matters unrelated to
academic standards.
A. Protection of Freedom of Expression. Students should be free to take
reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study and to
reserve judgment about matters of opinion, but they are responsible for learning
the content of any course of study for which they are enrolled.
B. Protection Against Improper Academic Evaluation. Students should have
protection through orderly procedures against prejudiced or capricious academic
evaluation. At the same time, they are responsible for maintaining standards of
academic performance established for each course in which they are enrolled.
C. Protection Against Improper Disclosure. Information about student views,
beliefs, and political associations whihc professors acquire in the course of their
work as instructors, advisers and counselors should be considered confidential.
Protection against improper disclosure is a serious professional obligation.
Judgments of ability and character may be provided under appropriate
circumstances, normally with the knowledge or consent of the student.
111. Student Records
Institutions should have a carefully considered policy as to the information
which should be part of a student's permanent educational record and as to the
conditions of its disclosure. To minimize the risk of improper disclosure,
adcademic and disciplinary records should be separate, and the conditions of
access to each should be set forth in an explicit policy statement. Transcripts of
academic records should contain only information about academic status.
Information from disciplinary or counseling files should not be available to
unathorized persons on campus, or to any person off campus without the express
consent of the student involved except under legal compulsion or in cases where
the safety of persons or property is involved. No records should be kept which
reflect the political activities or beliefs of students. Provision should also be made
for periodic routine destruction of noncurrent disciplinary records.
Administrative staff and faculty members shoud respect confidential information
about students which they aquire in the course of their work.
IV. Student Affairs
In student affairs, certain standards must be maintained if the freedom of
students is to be preserved.
A. Freedom of Association. Students bring to the campus a variety of
interests previously acquired and develop many new interests as members of the
academic community. They should be free to organize and join associations to
promote their common interests.
1. The membership, policies and actions of a student organization usually
will be determined by vote of only those persons who hold bona fide
membership in the college or university community.
2. Affiliation with an extramural organization should not of itself disqualify
a student organization from institutional recognition.
3. If campus advisers are required each organization should be free to
choose its own adviser, and institutional recognition should not be withheld or
withdrawn soLey because of the inability of a student organization to secure an
adviser. Campus advisers may advise organizations in the exercise of
responsibility, but they should not have the' authority to control the polic of
such organizations.
Code of Student Rights and Responsibilities
Independently this week the SAC and the GUILFORDIAN decided that the
"Rights and Freedoms " of students did exist and students whould be aware of
them.
SAC had to face, after the fact, a semi-legal, poorly handled dorm search. The
Statement had been adopted by the college several years ago; when Procedural
St awards (see VI-paragraph B) were compared with the circumstances of the
search, certain items did not match. Moreover, there arose serious questions
about the application of the Statement to Guilford College Threee •*> number,
4. Student organizations may be required to submit a statement of purpose,
criteria for membership, rules of procedures and a current list of officers. They
should not be required to submit a membership list as a condition of institutional
recognition.
5. Campus organizations, including those affiliated with an extramural
organization, should be open to all students without respect to race, creed, or
national origin, except for religious qualifications which may be required by
organizations whose aims are primarily sectarian.
B. Freedom of Inquiry and Expression.
1. Students and student organizations should be free to examine and to
discuss all questions of interest to them, and to express opinions publicly and
privately. They should always be free to support causes by orderly means which
do not disrupt the regular and essential operation of the institution. At the same
time, it should be made clear to the academic and the larger community that in
their public expressions or demonstrations students or student organizations
speak only for themselves.
2. Students should be allowed to invite and to hear any person of their own
choosing. Those routine procedures required by an institution before a guest
speaker is invited to appear on campus should be designed only to insure that
their is orderly scheduling of facilities and adequate preparation for the event,
and that the occasion is conducted in a manner appropriate to an academic
community. The institutional control of campus facilities should not be used as a
device of censorship. It should be made clear to the academic and larger
community that sponsorship of guest speakers does not necessarily imply
approval or endorsement ot the views expressed, either by the sponsoring group
or the institution.
C. Student Participation in Institutional Government. As constitutents of the
academic community, students should be free, individually and collectively, to
express their views on issues of institutional policy and on matters of general
interest to the student body. The student body should have clearly defined
means to participate in the formulation and application of institutional polic
affecting academic and student affairs. The role of the student government and
both its general and specific responsibilities should be made explicit,and the
actions of the student government within the areas of its jurisdiction should be
reviewed only through orderly and prescribed procedures.
D. Student Publications. Student publications and the student press are a
valuable aid in establishing and maintaining an atmosphere of free and
responsible discussion and of intellectual exploration on the campus. They are a
means of bringing student concerns to the attention of the faculty and
institutional authorities and of formulalting student opinion on various issues on
the campus and in the world at large.
Whenever possible the student newspaper should be an independent
corporation financially and legally separate from the university. Where financial
and legal autonomy is not possible the institution, as the publisher of student
publications, may have to bear the legal responsibility for the contents of the
publications. In the delegation of editorial responsibility to students the
institutionynust provide sufficient editorial freedom and financial autonomy for
the student publications to maintain their integrity of purpose as vehicles for free
inquirry and free expression in an academic community.
Institutional authorities, in consultation with students and faculty, have a
responsibility to provide written clarification of the role of the student,
publications, the standards to be used in their evaluation, and the limitations on
external control of their operation. At the same time, the editorial freedom of
student editors and managers entails corollary responsibilities to be governed by
the canons of responsible journalism, such as the avoidance of libel, indecency,
undocumented allegations, attacks on personal intergrity, and the techniques of
harassment and innuendo. As safeguards for the editorial freedom of student
publications the following provisions are necessary:
1. The student press should be free of censorship and advance approval of
copy, and its editors and managers should be free to develop their own editorial
policies and news coverage.
2. Editors and managers of student publications should be protected from
arbritary suspension and removal because of student, faculty, administrative or
public disapproval of editorial policy or content. Only for proper and stated
causes should editors and managers be subject to removal and then by orderly
and prescribed procedures. The agency responsible for the appointment of
editors and managers should be the agency responsible for their removal.
3. All university published and financed student publications should
expressly state on the editorial page that the opinions there expressed are not
necessarily those of the college, university or student body.
V. Off Campus Freedom of Students
A. Exercises of Rights of Citizenship. College and university students are both
citizens and members of the academic community. As citizens,studentsshould
enjoy the same freedom of speech, peaceful assembly, and right of petition that
other citizens enjoy and! as members of the academic community, they are
being: (/-/ What is appropriate authorization; (2) Who is the appropriate and
responsible authority fs); and (3) What is an application and who gets oner
SAC has promised to reword and define the particular passage this week, with
the GUILFORDIAN to print the new improved version next week.
But it wouldn't hurt for you, the protected, rightful free citizensof the
Guilford community to look at your "Rights. "And raise some hell if you think
they 're too liberal or conservative or irrevelent.
They won't be giving you "your rights, "like in DRAGNET.
subject to the obligations which accrue to them by virtue to this membership.
Faculty members and administrative officials should insure that institutional
powere are notemployed to inhibit such intellectual and personal development of
students as is often promoted by their exercise of the rights of citizenship both
on and off campus.
B. Institutional Authority and Civil Penalties. Activities of students may upon
occasion result in violation of law. In such cases, institutional officials should be
prepared to apprise students of sources of legal counsel and may offer other
assistance. Students who violate the law may incur penalties prescribed by civil
authorities, but institutional authority should never be used merely to duplicate
the function of general laws. Only where the institution's interests as an
academic community are distinct and clearly involved should the special
authority of the instittion be asserted. The student who incidentally violates
institutional regulations in the course of his off-campus activity, such as those
relating to class attendance, should be subject to no greater penalty than would
normally be imposed. Instituional action should be independent of community
pressure.
VI. Procedural Standards in Disciplinary Proceedings
In developing responsible student conduct, disciplinary proceedings play a role
substantially secondary to example, counseling, guidance, and admonition. At
the same time, educational institutions have a duty and the corollary disciplinary
powers to protect their educational purpose through the setting of standards of
scholarship and conduct for the students who attend them and through the
regulation of the use of institutional facilities. In the exceptional circumstances
when the preferred means fail to resolve problems of student conduct, proper
procedural safeguards should be observed to protect the student fromthe unfair
imposition of serious penalties.
The administration of discipline should gurantee procedural fairness to an
accused student. Practices in disciplinary cases may vary in formality with the
gravity of the offense and the sanctions which may be applied. They should also
take into account the presence or absence of an Honor Code and the degree to
which the institutional officials have direct acquaintance with student life, in
general, and with the involved student and the circumstances of the case in
particular. The jurisdictions of faculty or student judicial bodies, the disciplinary
responsibilities of institutional officials and the regular disciplinary prodecures,
including the student's right to appeal a decision, should be clearly formulated
and communicated in advance. Minor penalties may be assesed informally under
prescribed procedures.
In all situations, procedural fiar play requires that the student be informed of
,the nature of the charges against hrm, th'at he be' given a fair opportunity to
refute them, that the institution not be arbitrary in its actions, and tfiat there be
.provision for appeal Of a decision. The following are recommended as proper
safeguards in such proceedings when there are no Honor Codes offering
comparable guarantees.
A. Standards of Conduct Expected of Students. The institution has an
obligation to clarify those standards of behavior which it considers essentiali to
its educational mission and its community life. These general behavioral
expectations and the resultant specific regulations should represent a reasonable
regulation of student conduct but the student should be as free as possible fr
imposed limitations that have no direct relevance to his education. Offenses
should be as clearly defined as possible and interpreted in a manner consistent
with the aforementioned principles of relevancy and reasonableness. Disciplinary
proceedings should be instituted only for violations of standards of conduct
formulated with significant student participation and published in advance
through such means as a student handbook or a generally available body of
institutional regulations.
B. Investigation of Student Conduct.
1. Except under extreme emergency circumstances, premises occupied by
students and personal possessions of students should not be searched unless
appropriate authorization has been obtained. For premises such as residence halls
controlled by the institution, an appropriate and responsible authority should be
designated to whom application should be madbefore a search is conducted. The
application should specify the reasons for the search and the objects of
information! sought. The student should be present, if possible, during the
search. For premises not controlled by the institution, the ordinary requirements
for lawful search should be followed.
2. Students detected or arrested in the course of serious violations of
institutional regulations or infractions or ordinary law, should be informed of
their rights. No form of harassment should be used by institutional
representatives to coerce admissions of guilt or information about conduct
of other suspected persons.
C. Status of Student Pending Final Action. Pending action Dn the charges, the
status of student should not be altered, or his right to be present on the campus
and to attend classes suspended, except for reasons relating to his physical or
emotional safety and well-being, and for reasons relating to the safety and
well-being of students, faculty, or university property.
D. Hearing Committee Procedures. When the misconduct may result in serious
penalties and if the student questions the fairrness of disciplinary action taken
against him, he should be granted, on request, the privilege of a hearing before a
regularly constituted hearing committee. The following suggested hearing
committee procedures satisfy the requirements of procedural due process in
situations requiring a high degree of formality:
1. The hearing committee should include faculty members or students, or if
regularly included or requested by the Recused, both faculty and student
members. No member of the hearing committee who is otherwise interested in
the particular case should sit in judgment during the proceeding.
2. The student should be informed, in writing, of the reasons for the
proposed disciplinary action with sufficient particularity, and in sufficient time,
to insure opportunityto prepare for the hearing.
3. The student appearing before the hearing committee should have the
right to be assisted in his defense by an adviser of his choice.
4. The burden of proof should rest upon the officials bringing the charge.
5. The student should be given an opportunity to testify and to present
evidence and witnesses. He should have an opportunity to hear and question
adverse witnesses. In no case, should the committee consider statements against
him unless he has been advised of their content and of the names of those who
made them, and unless he has been given an opportunity to rebut unfavorable
inferences which might otherwise be drawn.
6. All matters upon which the decision may be based must be introduced
into evidence at the proceeding before the hearing committee. The decision
should be based solely upon such matter. Improperly acquired evidence should
not be admitted.
7. In the absence of a transcript, there should be both a digest and a
verbatim record, such as a tape recording, of the hearing.
8. The decision of the hearing committee should be final, subject only to
the student's right of appeal to the President or ultimately the governing board
of the institution.
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