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POLICY 06:01:04

FACULTY PROFESSIONAL ETHICS

Pellissippi State Community College accepts and affirms the Professional Ethics Statement of the American Association of University Professors1 originally adopted in 1966, revised and approved by the Association’s Council in 1987 and 2009, with minor modification for clarity. The modified statement reads as follows:

  1. Professors, 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 subject is to seek and to state the truth as they see it. To this end professors 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 professors may follow subsidiary interests, these interests must never seriously hamper or compromise their freedom of inquiry.
  2. As educators, professors encourage the free pursuit of student learning. They hold before them the best scholarly and ethical standards of their discipline. [Professors] protect [students’] academic freedom. They demonstrate respect for students as individuals and adhere to their proper roles as intellectual guides and counselors. Professors make every reasonable effort to foster honest academic conduct and to ensure that their evaluations reflect each student’s true merit. They acknowledge significant academic or scholarly assistance from [students].They respect the confidential nature of the relationship between professor and student. Professors avoid any exploitation, harassment, or discriminatory treatment of students. Professors’ interactions with students are professional and appropriate to an academic context. Professors neither engage in nor attempt to initiate sexual or romantic relationships with students over whom they have evaluative authority.
  3. As colleagues, professors have obligations that derive from common membership in the community of scholars. [Professors acknowledge the role they play in fostering a learning and working environment that is free of hostility, and therefore they] do not discriminate against or harass colleagues. They respect and defend the free inquiry of associates, even when it leads to findings and conclusions that differ from their own. Professors acknowledge academic debt and strive to be objective in their professional judgment of colleagues. Professors accept their share of faculty responsibility for the governance of their institution.
  4. As members of an academic institution, professors seek above all to be effective teachers and scholars. … [Provided the regulations do not contravene academic freedom, they maintain their right to criticize and seek revision.] 2 Professors give due regard to their paramount responsibilities within their institution in determining the amount and character of work done outside it. [Because professors recognize the effect of interrupting or terminating their service to their intuition, they] give due notice of their intentions.3
  5. As members of their community, professors have the rights and obligations of other citizens. Professors measure the urgency of these obligations in the light of their responsibilities to their subject, to their students, to their profession, and to their institution. When they speak or act as private persons, they avoid creating the impression of speaking or acting for their college or university. As citizens engaged in a profession that depends upon freedom for its health and integrity, professors have a particular obligation to promote conditions of free inquiry and to further public understanding of academic freedom.

1http://www.aaup.org/AAUP/pubsres/policydocs/contents/statementonprofessionalethics.htm
2The original reads: “Although professors observe the stated regulations of the institution, provided the regulations do not contravene academic freedom, they maintain their right to criticize and seek revision.”
3 When considering the interruption or termination of their service, professors recognize the effect of their decision upon the program of the institution and give due notice of their intentions.”

Approved: Executive Council, November 25, 1992
Approved: President Allen G. Edwards, November 18, 1997
Editorial Changes: February 11, 2003
Reviewed/Recommended: President’s Staff, March 25, 2008
Approved: President Allen G. Edwards, March 25, 2008
Editorial Changes: July 1, 2009
Recommended by President’s Council, March 31, 2014
Approved: President L. Anthony Wise, Jr. March 31, 2014
Reviewed/Recommended: President’s Council, March 9, 2020
Approved: President L. Anthony Wise, Jr. March 9, 2020