Ohio Administrative Code › Title 3344 - Cleveland State University › Chapter 3344-11 - Appointment of Leadership › Section 3344-11-15 - Attachment C to Chapter 3344-11 of the Administrative Code - 1958 - statement on procedural standards in faculty dismissal proceedings

Current through all regulations passed and filed through July 1, 2024
(A) Foreword.
The following statement on procedural standards in faculty
				dismissal proceedings has been prepared by a joint committee representing the
				association of American colleges and the American association of university
				professors. It is intended to supplement the 1940 statement of principles on
				academic freedom and tenure by providing a formulation of the "academic due
				process" that should be observed in dismissal proceedings. However, the exact
				procedural standards here set forth "are not intended to establish a norm in
				the same manner as the 1940 statement of principles on academic freedom and
				tenure, but are presented rather as a guide... ." (The statement was approved
				by the association of American colleges in January 1958, and by the American
				association of university professors in April 1958.)
(B) Introductory comments.
(1) Any approach toward settling the
			 difficulties, which have beset dismissal proceedings on many American campuses,
			 must look beyond procedure into setting and cause. A dismissal proceeding is a
			 symptom of failure; no amount of use of removal process will help strengthen
			 higher education as much as will the cultivation of conditions in which
			 dismissals rarely if ever need occur. Just as the board of control or other
			 governing body is the legal and fiscal corporation of the college, the faculty
			 are the academic entity. Historically, the academic corporation is the older.
			 Faculty were formed in the middle ages, with managerial affairs either
			 self-arranged or handled in course by the parent church. Modern college
			 faculties, on the other hand, are part of a complex and extensive structure
			 requiring legal incorporation, with stewards and managers specifically
			 appointed to discharge certain functions.
(2) Nonetheless, the faculty of a modern
			 college constitutes an entity as real as that of the faculties of medieval
			 times, in terms of collective purpose and function. A necessary precondition of
			 a strong faculty is that it have firsthand concern with its own membership.
			 This is properly reflected both in appointments to and in separations from the
			 faculty body.
(3) A well-organized
			 institution will reflect sympathetic understanding by trustees and teachers
			 alike of their respective and complementary roles. These should be spelled out
			 carefully in writing and made available to all. Trustees and faculty should
			 understand and agree on their several functions in determining who shall join
			 and who shall remain on the faculty. One of the prime duties of the
			 administrator is to help preserve understanding of those functions. It seems
			 clear on the American college scene that a close positive relationship exists
			 between the excellence of colleges, the strength of their faculties, and the
			 extent of faculty responsibility in determining faculty membership. Such a
			 condition is in no way inconsistent with full faculty awareness of
			 institutional factors with which governing boards shall be primarily
			 concerned.
(4) In the effective
			 college, dismissal proceedings involving a faculty member on tenure or one
			 occurring during the term of an appointment shall be a rare exception, caused
			 by individual human weakness and not by an unhealthy setting. When it does
			 come, however, the college should be prepared for it so that both institutional
			 integrity and individual human rights may be preserved during the process of
			 resolving the trouble. By the same token, presidents and governing boards shall
			 be willing to give full weight to a faculty judgment favorable to a colleague.
(5) One persistent source of
			 difficulty is the definition of adequate cause for the dismissal of a faculty
			 member. Despite the 1940 statement of principles on academic freedom and tenure
			 and subsequent attempts to build upon it, considerable ambiguity and
			 misunderstanding persist throughout higher education, especially in the
			 respective conceptions of governing boards, administrative officers, and
			 faculties concerning this matter. The present statement assumes that individual
			 institutions will have formulated their own definitions of adequate cause for
			 dismissal, bearing in mind the 1940 institutions.
(6) This statement deals with procedural
			 standards. Those recommended are not intended to establish a norm in the same
			 manner as the 1940 statement of principles on academic freedom and tenure, but
			 are presented rather as a guide to be used according to the nature and
			 traditions of particular institutions in giving effect to both faculty tenure
			 rights and the obligations of faculty members in the academic
			 community.