3.6 FACULTY RESPONSIBILITIES, EXPECTATIONS, AND ACADEMIC FREEDOM

3.6.1 Commitment to the Mission of the College

Calvin College has a long tradition of thought and exposition concerning its mission. In its briefest form, the College's mission statement reads as follows:

Calvin College is a comprehensive liberal arts college in the Reformed tradition of historic Christianity. Through our learning, we seek to be agents of renewal in the academy, church, and society. We pledge fidelity to jesus Christ, offering our hearts and lives to do God's work in God's world.

Beyond this and other concise mission statements, the college community has published comprehensive statements of purpose, most notably the Expanded Statement of Mission (1992, rev. 2004), and An Engagement with God's World: The Core Curriculum of Calvin College (1999). Faculty members of the college are expected to become familiar with the content of these documents and to accept and work in accordance with these statements of the College's commitments, outlook and aims.

The College community has addressed particular issues of concern relating to its mission, and has issued interpretive and policy-setting statements. Most notable among these are the Gender Concerns Task Force Report (1991) and From Every Nation: The Revised Comprehensive Plan for Racial Justice, Reconciliation and Cross-Cultural Engagement at Calvin College (2004). These documents are important to any faculty member seeking to know the current collective mind of the College and to commit to Calvin's mission. they are attempts to interpret the Word of God, the ecumenical creeds and the Reformed confessions and apply their truths to contemporary educational purposes. These documents therefore are derivative in nature, subject to revision or replacement, and are not confessional.

More foundational to the College's mission is its identity as a confessional Christian institution. It seeks to carry out its mission in fidelity to the Word of God as interpreted in the ecumenical creeds and the Reformed confessions. Membership in the Calvin College teaching faculty therefore requires adherence to these standards of faith and engagement in the ministry of God's people who gather under them. This adherence serves not as a bond in forming the academic community, but also as a basis for the responsibilities of the faculty. In particular, the following are requirements for faculty membership.

3.6.1.1 Signing the Form of Subscription

Calvin College faculty members are required to sign a synodically approved Form of Subscription in which they affirm the three forms of unity - the Belgic Confession, the Heidelberg Catechism, and the Canons of Dort - and pledge to teach, speak, and write in harmony with the confessions.

3.6.1.2 Church Membership

Calvin College faculty members are required to be professing members in good standing and active participants in the life, worship, and activities of a Christian Reformed Church (CRC) or of any church which is a member of a denomination in ecclesiastical fellowship with the CRC as defined by its Synod. A current list of such denominations is kept in the Provost's Office.

3.6.1.3 Christian Schooling

Calvin College faculty members are normally required to provide their children with Christian schooling.

The requirement is applicable to grades K through 12. Christian schools that are members of Christian Schools International are expected to be the primary schools of choice for faculty. However, home schooling and sending children to other schools that base their education on the Christian faith could also fulfill the requirement when approved on an individual basis.

Further information about these requirements, their applicability, and possible exceptions is available in Section 6.13.

3.6.2 Faculty Conduct

Calvin College asks each member of its faculty to become part of a Christian community in which we are accountable to and responsible for each other. An essential element of our responsibility to the community and to one another is to strive always to "lead a life worthy of God, who has called you into his own kingdom and glory" (I Thess. 2:12).

Theological affirmation entails moral commitment. The Heidelberg Catechism, which is formally endorsed by each member of the faculty, describes the normal rhythm of Christian life as "dying away" and "coming to life." When our old self dies away, we grieve our sin, hate it, and flee from it. When our new self comes to life, we take wholehearted joy in God through Christ, and we delight to do every kind of good as God wants us to. The good that God wants has been expressed in the moral teachings of the Scriptures, explained in the Catechism's elaboration of the Ten Commandments, epitomized in the words and deeds of our Savior, and taught to the church by the apostles and by the theologians who have served the church in every age.

Faculty members at Calvin College are therefore expected to exemplify personal integrity, honesty, respect, humility, courage, liberality, gratitude, gentleness, kindness, patience and self-control in their words and actions. Many of these qualities are identified by the apostle Paul as the "gifts of the Spirit" (Col. 3, Ga. 5), and faculty members strive with God's help to demonstrate these virtues both in their professional activities and in their personal lives. In this way they invite others to know the reconciliation that is offered by God in Christ and to live up to God's demand for justice in society. It is part of the calling of the faculty to speak out against wickedness and injustice in society and in the world and to be agents of God's righteousness and peace. Members of the Calvin faculty are called to build one another up in faith and in virtue and to serve others as citizens of God's kingdom.

Implementation of these standards and expectations is both a communal and an individual responsibility, and each member of the Calvin faculty is accountable to his or her colleagues in matters of ethical conduct no less than in scholarship and teaching. When faculty members fall significantly short of these ideals, they should admit their wrongdoing, seek forgiveness from those whom they have offended, and strive to make restitution to those who have been wronged. When faculty members observe that others have fallen significantly short, they should seek to correct and restore them in a spirit of humility and mutual service. When these ideals are honored, formal disciplinary procedures, such as those set forth in Chapter 6, will seldom be needed.

3.6.3 Specific Responsibilities

The responsibilities which are specifically assigned to the faculty are those of teaching, scholarship, academic advising, and service.

The following statements of responsibilities in each of these areas are intended to guide the faculty in understanding the community expectations of the faculty. The definitions of responsibility are meant to give guidelines to faculty members in selecting appropriate ways to fulfill their responsibilities as faculty members. While all faculty members are expected to be effective teachers and lead an "active life of the mind," the extent of engagement in scholarship, advising, and service will depend to some degree on an individual's gifts and interests. While each faculty member has responsibilities in all areas, not all faculty are expected to be equally engaged or effective in each of them. Rather than having faculty members who are most effective in each of these areas set the standard for all others, the following guidelines are provided.

In considering which activities to pursue, faculty members are encouraged to select those that arise out of their calling - as teachers, scholars, and community members at Calvin College. The combination of these activities should have integrity, e.g., ideally the service should arise out of their expertise as teacher and scholar. Faculty members should also maintain an appropriate balance of activities that reflects individual interests and gifts as well as serves the needs of the college.

Since teaching is considered primary and an active life of the mind is necessary for effective teaching, faculty members have a responsibility to ensure that their service activities do not detract from this primary responsibility. The definition of responsibilities is intended to assist faculty in choosing activities which fulfill their responsibilities in each area without having activities in one interfere with the fulfillment of others. One's choice of activities in each area should be made with the support and encouragement of colleagues. Faculty members are expected to participate in departmental efforts to foster the antiracist, multicultural aims of the college as they relate to specific academic disciplines, and to assist the department in evaluating how these efforts bear fruit in teaching, scholarship, advising, and service that contribute to the attainment of the antiracist, multicultural vision of From Every Nation.

3.6.3.1 Teaching

Teaching is the primary vocation and responsibility of the Calvin College faculty. At Calvin, teaching is the intentional and systematic engagement of students in vigorous liberal arts and professional education. Effective teaching of college students includes exploring, transmitting, assessing, preserving, transforming, and shaping the intellectual, artistic, and moral achievements of human culture. Effective teaching also includes developing competencies expected of college-educated persons in society. The aims of teaching are to develop knowledge, understanding, and critical inquiry; to encourage insightful and creative participation in society; and to foster thoughtful, passionate commitments to do God's work in God's world.

Becoming an effective teacher is an ongoing and complex process characterized by striving, growth, and change. Nevertheless, some principles and goals of effective teaching can be articulated, and these are presented in the following paragraphs.

3.6.3.1.1 Commitment

Of first importance among the expectations for teachers at Calvin College is the commitment to profess the truth of the gospel as presented in Scripture, reflected in the Reformed creeds, and articulated in a Reformed worldview.

Effective teachers commit themselves to the truth: exploring, challenging, and testing ideas in order to discern the truth. They commit themselves to the discernment of the worldviews that inform ideas and to the development of ways in which the Christian faith can shape those ideas. Moreover, effective teachers are committed to a view of learning in which knowing entails responsibility, competence involves caring, and the mind and heart are one.

Effective teachers are committed to their students as God's image-bearers. With such a commitment, they acknowledge the gifts of students as well as the barriers to learning. They are committed to engaging students in ways which will enrich their lives and prepare them for lives of obedient service.

Effective teachers commit themselves to the mission of the college in education, scholarship, and community. They concern themselves with and are involved in scholarly pursuits, departmental responsibilities, college-wide tasks, advising assignments, and community service as an expression of their teaching.

3.6.3.1.2 Knowledge

Effective teachers are themselves enthusiastic learners. They have prepared themselves with educational and professional experiences to be practicing members of the academic community. Their acquaintance with a body of knowledge is active rather than passive, and what they pass on to their students is knowledge they have appropriated for themselves.

Effective teachers are intellectually alert. They are aware of developments in their academic field, understand the context of the ideas within the field, and are alert to changes in society that may shape the meaning and significance of the ideas. They read and contribute to publications; they participate in professional conferences. Their involvement in the broader educational community and its intersection with society should be a model of professional life for their students.

Effective teachers know their students. They understand student development and acknowledge the diversity of students' needs and abilities. Effective teachers foster a classroom atmosphere in which students can appropriate knowledge for themselves. Effective teachers know, however, that teaching sometimes causes discomfort, and respect for students remains within the context of respect for truth.

Effective teachers know, explore, and implement appropriate pedagogy. They organize class sessions thoughtfully, present concepts clearly, engage students effectively, and design relevant assignments. They also use a variety of teaching methods that address student diversity in development, cognitive ability, and learning style. In addition, they manage time and resources efficiently.

Effective teachers use various methods of assessment and evaluation appropriate to the educational goals of the course. They carefully consider student work and show sensitivity to and understanding of each student. They also engage in self-assessment and reflectively accept evaluative comments from colleagues and students.

3.6.3.1.3 Engagement

Effective teachers exhibit respect for people and show a congeniality and sociability that enables them to approach students with confidence and humility.

Effective teachers establish a relationship that invites students into the arena of academic study in which together they struggle toward discerning, claiming, and living the truth. These teachers model conviction, display enthusiasm for their subject matter, and engage indifferent students. Effective teachers have a compelling sense of mission that takes courses beyond the humdrum to memorable intellectual and spiritual experiences.

3.6.3.2 Research and Scholarship

All members of the Calvin College faculty are expected to be engaged in scholarship, which consists of the study, critical assessment, and creation of concepts, practices, perspectives, and theories. Scholarship includes, but is not limited to, research intended for publication for an academic audience in order to advance current knowledge and understanding. The college supports and strongly encourages, but does not in every instance demand, faculty involvement in research of this kind, which some departments have referred to as "advanced scholarship."

Scholarship also includes study of how to teach more effectively. It includes the presentation of the methods and accomplishments of one's academic discipline to non-academic audiences, through publication, public speaking, or other means. It includes becoming informed of significant current work related to one's discipline. It includes, in some disciplines, producing or performing artistic work. It may include consulting activity that is evaluated in appropriate ways and involves critical reflection on the application of theory to practice.

Activities such as these that are appropriate to each faculty member's experience and interests should be undertaken as part of a coherent plan for long-range professional and intellectual growth. Since scholarly work is usually communal, responsibility for individual scholarship is shared with the department and other colleagues. Each department should support such endeavors and recognize excellence, while each individual should pursue research that is appropriate to departmental needs and, when possible, contributes to larger departmental and interdepartmental projects.

It does not necessarily follow from the fact that scholarship includes all of these diverse activities that engagement in any one of them is sufficient to meet the college's expectations of faculty. It is not sufficient, for example, simply to keep up with developments in one's field. It is also necessary to be attentive to changes in culture and society that impinge on one's scholarly field and to subject them to critical assessment in the light of Christian commitment. Critical reflection on one's own teaching is a legitimate part of scholarship, but it is not sufficient to meet the college's expectations. Scholarship and teaching are interdependent, and excellence in one realm usually fosters excellence in the other; but neither can be reduced to, or put forward as a substitute for, the other. Expectations for scholarship go beyond the requirement of excellent teaching.

Even though an active program of research or advanced scholarship is not required of all faculty, each department does require either publication or another mode of dissemination of the fruits of scholarship to audiences outside the college. It is the task of the department along with the Professional Status Committee to identify the kinds of publication or production that constitute an adequate program of scholarship for reappointment and tenure, and to specify the ways in which such scholarly work can be appropriately evaluated and documented.

Underlying specific departmental guidelines are two general principles: all members of the Calvin faculty are expected to be actively engaged in the scholarly or professional work of their discipline, and all faculty members are expected to demonstrate that their scholarly work forms part of an appropriate plan for professional development. In their work as scholars, members of the Calvin faculty are fulfilling an important part of their responsibilities to the Christian community.

3.6.3.3 Community Service

The responsibility of faculty members for community service is essentially to be constructive participants in the life of the several communities in which they live. This responsibility is fulfilled in a great variety of ways, according to individual talents and community needs. Moreover, it is a responsibility that by its very nature eludes precise description or measurement against a single standard.

Through community service, faculty members demonstrate the conviction that their intellectual abilities and their advanced education are not possessions to be exploited for personal benefit but rather are talents held in stewardship for the benefit of others with whom they come into contact. Service is an essential part of the work of the faculty because it gives concrete form to the Reformed conception of vocation as the development of the gifts of each individual for the good of all. It also helps combat the temptation to withdraw into an ivory tower of academic isolation and engages faculty in the world outside the academy.

Faculty members may fulfill their responsibility for community service in four distinct but related dimensions.

1. Service to the College Community
   
   Faculty members contribute to the work of the college through service on committees (departmental, divisional, and college-wide), acceptance of special assignments, mentoring students and student groups, participation in college activities, and active support for the advancement of the mission of the college. Service of this kind is expected of all faculty members.
   
   
2. Service to the Church Community
   
   Faculty members are actively engaged in the life of their congregations, not only through regular attendance at worship but also through service on committees and councils, willingness to participate on regional and national church committees and in ecumenical outreach, active support for evangelism and community service, and other signs of their commitment to the work of the Christian church.
   
   
3. Service to the Scholarly Community
   
   Faculty members are expected to contribute, when opportunities arise or they are invited to do so, to the community of teachers and scholars locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. They do so by evaluating manuscripts and proposals, by planning scholarly meetings, and by serving on committees and boards that seek to advance teaching and scholarship.
   
   
4. Service to Other Communities
   
   Faculty members are active citizens of communities beyond the college, and they seek opportunities to use their skills and talents for the benefit of others. Among the ways in which they may do so are participating in civic life, contributing their time to service projects and community service agencies, serving on local committees and task forces, and supporting efforts to provide better education, housing, and nutrition for those who are in special need.
   
   Community service may arise either from a faculty member's specific vocation, as a scholar and teacher on the faculty of the college of the Christian Reformed Church, or from more personal interests and qualifications. (Refereeing for journals, organizing a session at a scholarly meeting, speaking to schoolteachers about one's research, and serving on church study committees are examples of the former; volunteering at a food pantry and planning a neighborhood meeting would fall into the latter category.) While both may be appropriate kinds of service, the former is more nearly central to the college's purposes and will be given greater weight in the assessment of a faculty member's work.

3.6.3.4 Advising

The responsibility of the faculty members in their role as academic advisors is to help students plan efficient and fruitful academic programs. They try to ensure that students are familiar with, and can make the best use of, the college curriculum. They encourage students' initiative, offer them accurate information, and provide a liaison to other resources in the college. Academic advisors make clear their concern for the students' academic and personal welfare. They are willing to listen to their advisees, strive to understand their goals and aspirations, and in the light of those help them evaluate their academic programs.

Academic advisors understand the nature of and the rationale for Christian liberal arts education at Calvin College. They are able to articulate this rationale and to explain to students how it is embodied in specific programs. Advisors understand the goals of the liberal arts core as well as the scholarly intentions and practical ends of the programs of their own departments.

Advisors provide students with accurate information about their academic programs, help students keep track of their progress toward degree fulfillment, and counsel that prerequisites are taken in proper order and that courses essential to the program are not neglected. Advisors provide active liaison between advisees and sources of help in other departments and administrative offices and make themselves available for consultation, both during advising days and in regularly scheduled office hours.

3.6.4 Academic Freedom

Every faculty member, whether tenured or untenured, shall be entitled to the right of academic freedom in the performance of his or her duties. The faculty member shall be judged only by the confessional standards of Calvin College, and by the professional standards appropriate to his or her role and discipline. A faculty member shall not be expected or required to retract or modify his or her utterances merely because a complaint against them has been received. Only complaints which allege a violation of confessional or professional standards shall be considered, and then only when the evidence supporting the allegation is more substantial than rumor or hearsay. By making this commitment to its entire faculty, Calvin College seeks to implement the Christian principles of justice and charity in its own community.

A staff member is entitled to academic freedom as defined above. It extends to the discipline in the classroom, to research, writings, and other public utterances in the field of professional competence. It does not extend to the expression in the classroom of opinions on controversial and partisan issues which have no relationship to his or her discipline or teaching subject. The classroom may not serve the teacher as a platform for causes unrelated to his or her profession as a Christian teacher of a discipline.

The Calvin College teacher is a citizen, a member of a learned profession, and a representative of Calvin College. When speaking as a citizen, the teacher should be free from institutional censorship or discipline unless his or her Christian character is compromised or Christian witness impaired. However, a special position in the church and in the community imposes special obligations. The Calvin College staff member should remember that the public will tend to judge the profession and the institution by his or her utterances. Therefore, he or she should be accurate at all times, exercise proper restraint, and respect the rights of others to express their opinions. The faculty member shall not attempt to politicize the institution in purely partisan matters, and shall dissociate the college from political activities.

Staff members are permitted and, normally, even encouraged to run for political office or hold memberships on civic commissions. Should staff members be elected or appointed to such positions which necessitate either partial reduction in or complete separation from service to Calvin College, they may retain their position on the staff, but then under the terms of the leave of absence policy.

Last updated Tuesday, May 22, 2007