From BGSU Academic Charter
Division II: Faculty Handbook
Section B-II.F: Ethical Responsibilities
2. Teaching Responsibilities
a) Introduction
Generations of teacher-scholars have recognized that membership in the academic profession carries with it special responsibilities. The nature of the educational process, the circumstances necessary to search for truth, and the use, extension, and transmission of knowledge have resulted in various statements of the concept of academic freedom. Always, this demand for freedom has been accompanied by an awareness of a concomitant responsibility, which has been part of the conduct of reasonable, learned, and humane men and women who practice the worthy and dignified profession of teacher-scholar.
Although many aspects of this sense of responsibility have been, and will remain, unwritten and understood, the faculty of BGSU wishes to reaffirm in a formal way its recognition of its special responsibilities as set forth in the following statement.
b) Statement
The faculty of BGSU reaffirms that the following are an accepted part of their responsibilities as teacher-scholars:
(1) The responsibility to assure the student’s freedom to learn, through maintaining an atmosphere conducive to free inquiry, the respect of the student as an individual, and the evaluation of students based on professionally judged academic performance without regard to personal or political matters irrelevant to that performance.
(2) The responsibility to exercise intellectual honesty, through the development and improvement of one’s scholarly competence, the exercise of critical self discipline and judgment, and the avoidance of subsidiary interests that compromise or hamper freedom of inquiry.
(3) The responsibility to state clearly the objectives of the courses taught, to direct the instruction toward the fulfillment of these objectives, and to avoid the persistent intrusion of material irrelevant to the established course definition or apart from the faculty member’s area of scholarly competence. (emphasis added)
(4) The responsibility to participate meaningfully and constructively in the governance of the institution, and the maintenance of high professional standards in the objective evaluation of colleagues.
(5) The responsibility to meet classes and other academic obligations regularly and at scheduled times, to assist in arrangement when emergencies intervene, to maintain reasonable opportunities for student contact and conference, and to provide information on progress and evaluation as part of the student learning experience.
(6) The responsibility to determine the amount and character of the work done outside the institution with due regard to one’s paramount responsibility within it.
(7) The responsibility, while acting as a private citizen with the rights and obligations of any citizen, to avoid creating the impression that one speaks or acts for the University.
B-II.F
Ethical Responsibilities
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(8) The responsibility to observe the stated regulations of the institution, but to guard the right to criticize and seek revision peacefully.
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