VI. Academic Freedom and Responsibility

The free search for truth and its free exposition are at the heart of a Rhodes education. Academic freedom protects this process by granting Faculty members freedom of inquiry and expression while defining the special responsibilities that accompany them.

Officers of instruction shall have the freedom to determine, consistent with each course’s description, the specific content of the courses they teach. They have the responsibility to avoid departing from their areas of competence or devoting time to material extraneous to the subject matter of the course.

Officers of instruction shall have full freedom in carrying out their research and in publication of the results, consistent with the performance of their other academic duties. Research or consulting for pecuniary return may be undertaken only with the approval of the Vice President for Academic Affairs.

When officers of instruction speak or write as citizens or as members of a learned profession they shall be free of institutional restraints. While they may identify themselves as Rhodes Faculty, they have the concurrent obligation to state that they are not speaking for the College. The public statements of officers of instruction should be accurate, and should show restraint and respect for the opinions of others.