3000 SERIES  EDUCATIONAL PROGRAMS AND STANDARDS

            B.         Educational Standards

                        3120    Academic Freedom

Academic freedom means the freedom to teach and present all sides of an issue in         frank and open discussion.  Anything that is opinion should be clearly earmarked.

The College has the right and the obligation to free, open discussion of controversial issues, which fall within the broad scope of its instruction.

College instructors are citizens, members of a learned profession, and officers of the College.  When speaking or writing as citizens, they should be free from institutional censorship or discipline, but their position in the community imposes special obligations.  As persons of learning and as educational officers, they should remember that the public may judge the profession and the institution by their utterances, and therefore should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and should make every effort to indicate that they are not institutional spokespersons.

 Reference:  Education Code 72292.

                    California Administrative Code, Title 5, 51023.

                    Governing Board Policy 5040.

Formerly Governing Board Policy 3.15.