Number: 30

Subject: ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITY

 The Board of Trustees believes that it is essential for the faculty to be free to pursue scholarly inquiry without undue restrictions and to voice and publish conclusions concerning the significance of evidence developed through responsible research. Each faculty member must be free from the corrosive fear that others, inside or outside the university community, may threaten his or her personal career or the material benefits accrued from scholarly findings.

Each faculty member is entitled to freedom in the classroom when discussing the subject he is assigned to teach but must also accept the responsibility of professional integrity and competence in his field of specialization and exhibit such competency in lectures, discussions, and publications. Every faculty member must strive to be accurate, to exercise appropriate restraint, to show respect for the opinion of others, and to avoid creating the impression that he acts or speaks for the University when he speaks or acts as a private person.

Each faculty member must recognize that the public will judge his profession and his institution by his statements. It is clear from the Articles of Incorporation of the University that the institution is committed to New Testament Christianity. In accepting a position as a member of the faculty, it is understood that academic freedom shall not be regarded as a license to propagate a principle or ideology that violates the basic purpose for which the institution stands.