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

REGENTS’ POLICY MANUALSECTION 2—ACADEMICScolleagues. Although service must be voluntary, faculty members should accept a reasonable share of theresponsibility for the governance of their institution. If driven by his or her conscience into dissent, thefaculty member shall take care that this dissent does not interfere with the rights of colleagues andstudents to study, research, and teach.Faculty members have responsibilities to their discipline and to the advancement of knowledgegenerally. Their primary obligation in this respect is to seek and to state the truth as they see it. To thisend, they shall devote their energies to developing and improving their scholarly competence. They shallexercise critical self-discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge, and theyshall practice intellectual honesty.Faculty members have responsibilities to the educational institution in which they work. Whilemaintaining their right to criticize and to seek revisions, they shall observe the stated regulations of theinstitution, provided these do not contravene academic freedom. Faculty members shall determine theamount and character of the work they do outside their institution with due regard to their paramountresponsibilities within it. When considering the interruption or termination of his or her service, thefaculty member recognizes the effect of such a decision upon the program of the institution and gives duenotice of the decision.2.1.3—FACULTY ACCOUNTABILITYA faculty member is held accountable for his or her performance in fulfilling faculty duties and inmeeting the requirements of academic responsibility and University policies. Persons who accept fulltimeemployment at the University owe their first duty to the University. Any other employment orenterprise in which they engage for income must be secondary to their University duties. The mostimmediate agents of faculty accountability are the faculty member’s chair or (for the Norman Campus)chair or director and Committee A, who should maintain close and regular communication with thefaculty member. Among the various mechanisms for ensuring faculty accountability, the most importantinclude annual evaluations for possible salary increases, annual progress towards tenure letters for tenuretrackfaculty on the Norman Campus, post-tenure reviews for tenured faculty on the Norman Campus,and such periodic evaluations as those for advancement in rank. These processes have the primaryfunction of identifying meritorious performance to be rewarded, but they also provide a means by whichthe University may strengthen itself, by identifying needs for improved performance.Meritorious and responsible faculty performance is first and foremost an individual professionalobligation. But it is also the product of a cooperative effort by faculty members and administrativeofficers assisting one another, informing one another, and jointly seeking to assure that each facultymember’s capabilities are developed fully and creatively. Performance that is lacking in merit orresponsibility, when identified, is a challenge both to the individual and to the academic unit and itsleaders, in their exercise of the unit’s career development responsibilities. Just as faculty members areheld accountable for their performance, administrators of academic units are held accountable for theirleadership in the career development of the faculty in their units.Counseling, career development support, and other kinds of administrative remedies are available toacademic units in their normal operations, as a means of attempting to rectify poor professionalperformance or breaches of academic responsibility. If normal administrative remedies fail to correct afaculty member’s poor professional performance or breach of academic responsibility, the President mayconsider applying a minor sanction, such as a formal reprimand. Prior to any such action, the PresidentTHE UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA 13