Rutgers Policy on Academic Freedom

What Does the Policy Do?

• States that the very nature of a university and its value to society depend upon the free pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and free artistic expression
• States that faculty and teaching staff are expected to maintain standards of sound scholarship and competent teaching
• Codifies a Statement on Professional Ethics that all faculty and teaching staff must abide by
• Defines the parameters for dismissal of tenured and nontenured faculty, including for violation of the standards of sound scholarship and competent teaching outlined in the policy
• Outlines the process for an official hearing with regard to dismissal 

Policy Excerpt on the Free Pursuit and Dissemination of Knowledge

Excerpt from Sections 5 and 5A of the policy

Since the very nature of a university and its value to society depend upon the free pursuit and dissemination of knowledge and free artistic expression, all members of the faculty and teaching staff of the university, whether tenured or nontenured, full-time or part-time, are expected, whenever and wherever they engage in teaching, research, service, professional practice, or clinical practice, as well as in their research and professional publication, freely to discuss subjects with which they are competent to deal, to pursue inquiry therein, and to present and endeavor to maintain their opinions and conclusions relevant thereto.  In expressing those ideas which seem to them justified by the facts, they are expected to maintain standards of sound scholarship and competent teaching

They shall conduct themselves in accordance with the standards of professional ethics ... adopted by the American Association of University Professors at its annual meeting in April 1966 and revised in June 1987.

Read the Full Policy