The University subscribes to the following remarks on academic freedom, which have been excerpted and adapted from the AAUP document, Academic Freedom and Tenure, 1940 Statement of Principles and Interpretative Comments:

Institutions of higher education are conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of either the individual teacher or the institution as a whole. The common good depends upon the free search for truth and its free exposition.

Academic Freedom:

  • The teacher is entitled to full freedom in research and in publication of the results.
  • The teacher is entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing his or her subject, but should not introduce into his or her teaching controversial matter which has no relation to his or her subject.
  • The college or university teacher is a citizen, a member of a learned profession, and an officer of an educational institution. When he or she speaks or writes as a citizen, he or she should be free from institutional censorship or discipline. As a scholar and an educational officer, teachers should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence, they should be accurate, should show respect for the free exchange of ideas, and should make every effort to indicate that they are not institutional spokesmen.

AUP faculty members participate in the governance of the University through either direct representation via faculty senate and elected or appointed representation via the various committees, which are: