Minutes of a Regular Meeting, June 22-23, 2004 - Digital Collections

REGENTS’ POLICY MANUALSECTION 2—ACADEMICSSECTION 2-GENERAL POLICIESThe Board of Regents is constitutionally vested with the governance of the University. Within itsauthority is the governance of all faculty personnel matters, including without limitation, academicfreedom and responsibility, appointments, evaluations, academic misconduct, and academic appeals.Specific provisions pertaining to faculty personnel policies and related matters may be set forth in theFaculty and Staff Handbooks, student handbooks such as the Student Code of Responsibilities andConduct for the Norman Campus, and/or other official policy documents of the respective campuses.Any modifications to a Board of Regents’ policy in the policy documents referred to above or elsewheremust be made through action of the Board of Regents.2.1—FACULTY PERSONNEL POLICIESIt is the policy of the University to recognize and implement the functions assigned to it by theOklahoma State Regents for Higher Education. These functions are teaching; research andcreative/scholarly activity; and professional and University service and public outreach. Theresponsibility for carrying out this policy is shared by the Board of Regents, administrative officers, andthe Regular Faculty.Since 1942, the Regular Faculty has actively participated in the origination, formulation, andimplementation of University policies through a democratically-elected Faculty Senate. Today, there aretwo Senates, one for the Norman Campus and one for the Health Sciences Center Campus. The chartersfor these two Faculty Senates may be found in this Manual.2.1.1—THE REGULAR FACULTYThe Regular Faculty of the University is composed of all faculty members with regular appointmentsincluding tenure-track, tenured, and consecutive term/renewable term appointments at the ranks ofassistant professor, associate professor, and professor.Additional policies related to the Regular Faculty and the Faculty Senates are contained in theCharters of the Regular Faculty and Faculty Senates of the University.2.1.2—ACADEMIC FREEDOM AND RESPONSIBILITYINSTITUTIONAL ACADEMIC FREEDOMThe accumulation and exchange of knowledge are among the preeminent purposes of the University, andthe acknowledgement of individual academic freedom is one of the cornerstones to ensure such purposesare achieved. Equally important in meeting these goals is the recognition of the right inherent in theresponsibility of the Board of Regents to govern the University. “[I]t is the business of a university toprovide that atmosphere which is most conducive to speculation, experiment and creation. It is anTHE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 9