4.2 Academic Freedom and Responsibility

4.2.1 Academic Freedom

Academic freedom is an indispensable element of that larger liberty that includes the right to free expression. Because a free society and freedom itself rest upon the continuous search for knowledge, and because institutions of higher education are primary agencies for the acquisition and dissemination of knowledge, a faculty member is entitled to full academic freedom in research, in the publication of results and conclusions, and in the classroom presentation of his or her subject.

4.2.2 Academic Responsibility

Academic freedom, like any other freedom, carries with it concomitant responsibilities. The requirements of scholarship and research in a field of specialization constitute the guidelines for these responsibilities.

Academic freedom does not extend to the promulgation and exploitation of material that has no relationship to the subject being taught.

Academic responsibility imposes certain professional restraints on academicians in their roles as citizens. Because faculty are identified as members of a learned profession and as representatives of the University, they should bear in mind that the public may judge both the profession and the University on the basis of public utterances. Hence, when acting in their roles as citizens, faculty members are expected to be accurate in their statements, to respect the opinions of others, and to make it clear that they do not speak for the University or their profession.

As employees of a State institution of higher education, faculty members should refrain from involving the University of Texas System or The University of Texas at El Paso in partisan politics.