15.1 STATEMENT ON GOVERNANCE

BILL OF RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

1. Purpose. The purposes of this Statement of Governance is to set forth the rights and responsibilities that form the relationship among Eastern New Mexico University-Roswell (ENMU-Roswell) and its various constituencies, and to provide the philosophical background of, and the policy basis for, the Statement on Governance.

2. Policy. Members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community have an obligation to fulfill the responsibilities incumbent upon all citizens, as well as the responsibilities of their particular roles within the academic community. All members share the obligation to respect:

A. The fundamental rights of others as citizens;

B. The rights of others based upon the nature of the educational process;

C. The rights of the institution; and

D. The rights of individuals to fair and equitable procedures for determining when and upon whom penalties for violation of campus regulations should be imposed.

Therefore, it is in the best interests of ENMU-Roswell to enumerate the following:

RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES

3. Personal Rights and Responsibilities. As citizens, members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community enjoy the same basic rights and are bound by the same responsibilities to respect the rights of others, as are all citizens.

A. Among the basic rights are:

1. Freedom of speech;

2. Freedom of the press;

3. Freedom of peaceful assembly and association;

4. Freedom of political beliefs; and

5. Freedom from personal force and violence, threats of violence, and personal abuse.

B. Additionally,

1. Each member of the ENMU-Roswell educational community has the right to organize his or her own personal life or behavior, so long as it does not violate the law or agreements voluntarily entered into, and does not interfere with the rights of others or the educational process; and

2. Admission to, employment by, and promotion within the educational community shall accord with the provisions against discrimination in the general law.

C. Regarding the personal responsibilities of members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community, it must be understood that:

1. Freedom of press implies the right to freedom from censorship in campus newspapers and other media, and the concomitant obligation to adhere to the canons of responsible journalism and the requirements of common decency; and it should be made clear in writings or broadcasts that editorial opinions are not necessarily those of the institution or its members;

2. ENMU-Roswell is not a sanctuary from the general law; and

3. ENMU-Roswell does not stand in loco parentis for its members.

4. Educational Rights and Responsibilities. All members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community have other responsibilities and rights based upon the nature of the educational process and the requirements of the search for truth and its free presentation. Those rights and responsibilities include:

A. The obligation to respect the freedom to teach, to learn, and to conduct research and publish findings in the spirit of free inquiry;

B. The obligation to avoid institutional censorship and individual or group intolerance of the opinions of others that is inconsistent with this freedom;

C. The freedom to teach and to learn which implies that teachers have the right to determine the specific content of their courses, within the established course definition, and the responsibility not to depart significantly from their areas of competence or to divert significant time to material extraneous to the subject matter of their courses;

D. Free inquiry implies that (except under conditions of national emergency) no research, the results of which are secret, is to be conducted through ENMU-Roswell;

E. The obligation not to interfere with the freedom of members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community to pursue normal academic and administrative activities, including freedom of movement;

F. The obligation not to infringe upon the right of all other members of the educational community to privacy in offices, laboratories, and residence hall rooms and in the keeping of personal papers, confidential records and effects, subject only to the general law and conditions voluntarily entered into;

G. The obligation of the institution to limit records on members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community to information related only to the educational purposes of the institution and that these shall be open to the individual for inspection;

H. The obligation not to interfere with any member's freedom to hear and to study unpopular and controversial views on intellectual and public issues;

I. The right to identify oneself as a member of the campus and a concurrent obligation not to speak or act on behalf of the institution without authorization;

J. The right to hold public meetings in which members participate, to post notices, and to engage in peaceful, orderly demonstrations;

K. The right to reasonable and impartially applied rules designed to reflect the educational purposes of the institution and to protect the safety of the institution shall be established regulating time, place, and manner of such activities and allocating the use of facilities;

L. The right to recourse if another member of the ENMU-Roswell educational community is negligent or irresponsible in performance of his or her responsibilities or if another member of the educational community represents the work of others as his or her own;

M. The right to be heard and considered at appropriate levels of the decision-making process about basic policy matters of direct concern;

N. The obligation of all member of the ENMU-Roswell community to maintain the highest standards in the performance of their responsibilities; and

O. The obligation of all members of the educational community to protect the integrity of the academic process from internal and external attacks.

5. Rights and Responsibilities of ENMU-Roswell. ENMU-Roswell, and any division, agency, or persons exercising direct or delegated authority for the institution, has rights and responsibilities. The rights and responsibilities of ENMU-Roswell include:

A. The right and obligation to provide an open forum for members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community to present and debate public issues;

B. The right to prohibit individuals and groups who are not members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community from using its name, its finances, and its physical and operating facilities for commercial or political activities;

C. The right to prohibit members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community from using its name, its finances, or its physical and operating facilities for commercial activities;

D. The right and obligation to provide members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community the use of meeting rooms under the rules of the institution. Included is use for political purposes such as meetings of political clubs; to prohibit use of its rooms on a regular or prolonged basis by individual members or groups of members as free headquarters for political campaigns; and to prohibit use of its name, its finances, and its office equipment and supplies for any political purpose at any time;

E. The right and obligation not to take a position, as an institution, in electoral politics or on public issues, except on those issues which directly affect its autonomy, the freedom of its members, its financial support, and its academic functions;

F. The right and obligation to protect the members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community and visitors to it from physical harm, threats of harm, or abuse; the institution's property from damage and unauthorized use; and its academic and administrative processes from interruption;

G. The right to set reasonable standards of conduct in order to safeguard the educational process and to provide for the safety of members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community and the institution's property; and

H. The right to deny pay and academic credit to members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community who are on strike.[1]

6. Fair and Equitable Process. All members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community have a right to fair and equitable procedures that shall determine the validity of charges of violation of the institution's regulations. The following should be included as features of such process:

A. The procedures shall be structured to facilitate a reliable determination of the truth or falsity of charges, to provide fundamental fairness to the parties, and to be an effective instrument for the maintenance of order;

B. Definition of the procedures for determining penalties for violations of ENMU-Roswell regulations and for determining adequate cause for separation from the ENMU-Roswell educational community should be clearly formulated and made public; and

C. In the case of charges of infractions of regulations that may lead to notation in permanent records, or to more serious penalties such as suspension or expulsion, members of the ENMU-Roswell educational community have a right to formal procedures with adequate due process, including the right of appeal.

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