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FSEC discusses draft of new code of faculty conduct
By MARY COCHRANE
Contributing Editor
Nearly one year ago, President John B. Simpson suggested that the Faculty Senate write a code of faculty conduct to provide UB professors with an "articulate and clearly understood outline of what is to be expected, what is professional behavior."
The senate's executive committee yesterday received and discussed a first draft of a new code, which, according to the committee members who created it, draws from past knowledge found in the ethical statements and principles of several organizations and institutions, including the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).
"The first step in our process was taking the philosophy of 'Why reinvent the wheel?' if other organizations and comparable research universities have developed good working documents," said Lucinda Finley, code committee member.
Finley, vice provost for faculty affairs, and Frank G. Raichle, professor in the UB Law School, said the group collected and reviewed ethical principles and statements from a variety of other organizations and universities.
"Many of the ethical principles you will see are verbatim of the AAUP's statement of ethical principles which has been longstanding since the 1960s. As we examined it carefully, we felt it still had much contemporary vitality and that it was a comprehensive statement of ethical principles for faculty, so again, 'Why reinvent the wheel?'" she said.
"It turns out in our view that the University of California system had perhaps the most well developed and longstanding such document. We wound up referring to that often as our model," Finley said.
The committee also "had very frank discussions about some of the issues and incidents and types of situations that we were all familiar with and that had actually arisen at UB, and talked about to what extent they were currently addressed by existing policies, to what extent we thought they should be addressed in a code of conduct and statement of principles," she added.
What the code is not, Finley said, is "a complete laundry list of every issue" that may arise among faculty members.
"Any legislator or drafter will tell you that you can't anticipate and draft around every situation that might come up," she said.
Organized into three sections, the code of conduct begins with a section called Principles of Community, or "a set of shared commitments and understandings about what are we committed to as faculty members in a public research university," Finley said.
Section two, ethical principles, states the standards that faculty members should follow in their multiple roles as scholars, teachers, colleagues, university citizens and members of the Western New York community.
Section three provides examples of behavioral expectations. The category of faculty as teachers, for example, contains these statements, among others:
Faculty members are expected to recognize the power differential inherent in the faculty-student relationship and to avoid behaviors that abuse it.
Faculty members are expected to know and observe the law and university policies designed to eliminate discrimination, harassment and sexual harassment.
Faculty members will not enter into non-professional relationships, particularly sexual ones, with any student for whom they have, or should reasonably expect to have in the future, academic responsibility (instructional, evaluative or supervisory). Pre-existing, non-professional relationships with such students must be disclosed to the chair or other appropriate administrator so that alternative arrangements can be made for evaluation.
Faculty members will not deny access to instructional opportunities without just cause, and will not introduce in significant measure to any course material unrelated to that course.
When asked to give examples of abuses to "the power differential inherent in the faculty-student relationship," Finley replied that the example of a professor having a sexual relationship with a student "is a classic, unfortunately commonly occurring example, of a behavior that is fraught with abuse of an inherent power differential."
Other examples, she said, might include "if a faculty member asked a student to perform personal errands or things that are not germane to the teaching, mentoring, supervision relationship."
"It could include things like if a student makes a comment in class that you personally think is really stupid and if you say out loud 'That's an incredibly stupid comment.' That might actually, completely crush the spirit of someone," Finley said.
What happens if a faculty member does not adhere to the code?
"If a complaint were generated about something and someone said they thought it violated the ethical principles and expectations of behavior, this code is university policy," Finley said, so several things could happen. "It could form the basis for various levels of action, from working with the person if a complaint has been lodged to correct the situation to...ultimately, possibly discipline."
Gayle Brazeau, associate dean for academic affairs, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, suggested the code include language that would address behavior of UB faculty members who serve as professionals in their fields, such as doctors, nurses and lawyers.
Another suggestion was made that the role of faculty members as owners of private businesses also should fall under the code's domain, especially if such faculty members involve or employ students in those businesses.
The code committee will meet once more to revise its first draft, then present it again to the FSEC, which intends to present it to all UB faculty members at least twice in coming weeks.
In other business, Dela Yador, president of the university's undergraduate Student Association (SA), spoke about the organization's activities. The SA, with a budget of $2.8 million and a staff of 70 students, oversees 120 academic clubs, coordinates speakers and concerts, as well as online book exchange and online faculty evaluations sites.
This year, the SA is working to provide a Web site where students can see course syllabi, which Yador said could be available by spring 2006. He noted that the organization reached out to commuter students by offering them 400 lockers, free of charge, in the Student Union.
"They were gone in the first two days," he said.