The academic responsibilities of the faculty

The major obligations of a free university are to communicate and extend knowledge, to subject to continuous critical scrutiny and transmit man’s intellectual and cultural inheritance, and to provide conditions in which students are stimulated to explore, to challenge, and to learn. The effective conduct of these enterprises is only possible in a climate of understanding, good will, and the toleration of diverse views. Such a climate requires general consent about the distribution of the main areas of responsibility among faculty, students, and administration and the determination on the part of all of these groups to maintain the conditions essential to a free university.

The elemental relationship within a university is that between teachers and students, and this distinction in role indicates the appropriate division of responsibilities between these two constituencies. To the students belongs a major voice in determining and applying the rules of community order and in planning the broad spectrum of facilities and activities which determine the quality of social and cultural life on the campus. The major responsibility of the teachers, on the other hand, lies in the academic province: to set and maintain the highest possible educational and scholarly standards and levels of achievement, to embody these values in their teaching and counseling, and to uphold the conditions of free enquiry both for their students and for their colleagues.

All essential operations of the university, however, are of importance to all members of the community. While the particular aim of this report is to define the academic responsibilities of the faculty, it must be understood that students also have a legitimate concern in this province, and that it is the obligation of the faculty to remain sensitive and responsive to their needs. A major task of the university, at this point in Cornell history, is to develop procedures which will promote full and free communication between faculty, students, and administration, and will ensure to students adequate procedures for voicing their considered judgment, both on academic policies and on academic practices.

The Bylaws of Cornell University allocate academic duties to the separate faculties of the various units but reserve matters bearing on overall educational policy to the University Faculty as a whole. Article XIV, Section 3 (as of 1963):

Subject to the authority of the University Faculty on all matters affecting general educational policy, it shall be the duty of each separate college or school to determine the entrance requirements for its own students; to prescribe and define courses of study for them; to determine the requirements for such degrees as are offered to students under its jurisdiction; to recommend to the Board such candidates for degrees as may have fulfilled the requirements therefor; to enact and enforce rules for the guidance and supervision of its students in their academic work; and in general to exercise jurisdiction over all other educational matters in the particular college or school.

Following is a more detailed description of the various functions which must fall within the responsibility of the teachers and investigators who constitute the faculty:

1. Faculty Appointments

The primary decision on the appointment or promotion of faculty members, both to junior and tenure positions, is to be made by an appropriate group of the faculty, subject to approval by the University administrative officers concerned, and by the Board of Trustees where applicable.

Comments:

1. It is the responsibility of each department to determine considered student opinions about faculty members who are eligible for promotion to tenure. These opinions should be available to the body of the faculty responsible for the primary decision, and should be transmitted in writing to the dean, the ad hoc committee, and the provost.
2. We consider highly desirable the democratic procedure for faculty appointments or promotion to tenure now in use in many parts of the university. Initial recommendation is made by a small group of faculty members in the immediate area of the candidate’s interest. The major decision is made by the faculty members of the department involved (or, in the case of small schools, of the whole school) who have the same or higher rank as that to which the candidate is to be appointed. Tenure appointments are then scrutinized by an ad hoc committee, and must be approved by the dean, provost and Board of Trustees.
3. It is a continuing responsibility of each department to maintain the highest possible standards of teaching and counseling among all ranks of the teaching staff.

1. Admissions

The determination of admissions policy and the supervision of procedures for admitting students to Cornell are the responsibility of the faculties of the various colleges and schools within the university.

Comments:

1. The Bylaws of Cornell University (Article XIV.3) defines an area of responsibility in admissions for the University Faculty as a whole, as well as for the faculties of the separate units, by specifying that “the duty of each separate college or school faculty to
   155determine the entrance requirements for its own students” is “subject to the authority of the University Faculty on all matters affecting general educational policy.”
2. The various faculties may choose to delegate the actual procedures in recruiting and admitting students to committees which include nonfaculty members.
3. The faculty encourages methods for discovering and recruiting able students who have been disadvantaged by their social circumstances or by the inadequacy of the schools they have attended. These methods include: (1) facilitating the admission of students who have demonstrated their abilities in two-year community and junior colleges; (2) making reasonable allowances in admitting first-year students to take into account deficiencies in their preparation; (3) conducting remedial and tutorial programs to compensate for deficiencies in preparation.
4. Advice and guidance on admissions policies, as well as on the procedures for administering both standard and special admissions programs, should be sought from all qualified sources, including students already on campus. Procedures need to be established to ensure ready access to student judgment on these matters.

1. Academic Standards

Subject to applicable curricular or sequential constraints, the content and academic level on which a given course is taught is set by the professor teaching it. In the case of sequential courses, prerequisites may be set by the department.

The University Faculty devises and adopts university-wide systems of grading the students’ scholastic achievement. Within this framework the methods of rating student performance in a given course are set by the professor teaching it.

Comments:

1. High standards of teaching cannot be maintained without high levels of student performance. Procedures for rating scholastic achievement should contribute to student motivation and self-evaluation in the interest of promoting academic excellence.
2. Grading systems must be sufficiently specific to permit differentiated ratings, yet sufficiently flexible to allow experimentation by student and teacher. They should also be adaptable to the evaluation of students in non-standard study situations, such as independent study, group efforts of the discussion or project type, or instruction in residential colleges.
3. In any given course the particular ways of rating student achievement in that course and the content and academic level of that course should be clearly explained at the start.
4. The faculty should be open to student opinion on alterations and improvements in the conduct of courses.

1. Curricula

Degree Requirements, and Programs of Study The faculty of each college, school, or separate academic department, division, or center is responsible for and shall approve curricula, degree programs, and, where relevant, requirements for a departmental major.

Comments:

1. Where more than one college, school, department, division, or center are concerned, such responsibility and authority shall be jointly exercised. Where general educational policy is involved, such responsibility and authority shall be exercised by the University Faculty.
2. The faculty recognizes the importance of keeping and bringing the appropriate courses in contact with the conditions and problems of the contemporary world. Accordingly, it must be alert to desirable changes in material, to the possibility of new courses, and to innovations in teaching methods.
3. Students have an important role in curriculum planning and should participate in the work of curriculum committees.
4. Experimentation with courses and seminars conducted primarily by students is encouraged. The question of credit for such courses remains a faculty responsibility.
5. It is anticipated that degree programs, or requirements for a departmental major, will remain reasonably well defined, especially in professional and semi-professional areas. So far as the nature of a subject permits, however, students should, in consultation with their faculty advisors, have flexibility in developing their own programs of study.
6. The faculty recognizes its obligation to counsel students as individuals.

1. Research

Original work is an integral part of the activity of a faculty member. Subject only to the broad constraints of departments and overall university policies, the topic of research or the area of creative endeavor should be the free choice of the individual or of groups of cooperating faculty members.

Comments:

1. Support for research should be sought, or unsolicited grants accepted, only for subjects which are of interest to faculty members, or which fall under the recognized obligations of particular faculty members.
2. Increased efforts should be made, wherever faculty interest allows, to obtain support for research directly concerned with social and environmental problems.
3. Wherever feasible, research should be of a nature which generates appropriate topics for graduate students’ theses and for undergraduate projects.
4. All research contracted for by the university or done by individuals as part of their university duties must be unclassified.
5. Consultation work, whether for government or industry, is restricted by Cornell regulations to an average of one day a week during term time. This regulation should also apply to consultant agreements of faculty with any industry that may move to the Industrial Park.

1. Allocation of Resources

The faculty should have an effective role, in cooperation with the administration, in the planning of major academic changes and the initiation of new programs. Environmental values and planning that affects those values are a legitimate concern of faculty as well as students and administration.

Comments:

1. The faculty should share in any decision affecting the academic character of the university directly or indirectly. Any major change or new program—or even the cumulative effect of normal growth or contraction—can be of major academic importance because of the complex interrelation of the various parts of the university and the virtual autonomy of many of its units.
2. The faculty should have a voice strong enough to guard against any undue diversion of resources to nonacademic purposes.
3. Students have a valid interest in both academic and nonacademic changes and new developments. They should be given a formal role in planning facilities or programs affecting the quality of student life; for example, housing, dining, community relationships and extracurricular activities.

M. H. Abrams
William L. Brown Jr.
Howard Evans
Vernon H. Jensen
Robert S. Pasley
George Winter
Hans A. Bethe, Chairman