Standard 9
Contents
Institutional Integrity
As a public institution, Evergreen’s framework for institutional integrity begins with the applicable state laws. These include the Ethics in Public Service Act (Link to RCW 42.52), the Open Public Meetings Act (Link to RCW 42.30) and the Public Records law (Link to RCW 42.56). These laws in turn are implemented in college policies, including the college’s ethics policy (Link), its whistleblower policy (Link) and others (Link). In 2005, the college re-established the staff position of Internal Auditor to provide a more systematic and professional implementation of these policies.(Link) In the past decade, the expansion of the Web resulted in improved transparency, as meeting minutes and other college documents are now routinely posted on the Web site.
The college’s foundational policy documents include strong statements supporting academic freedom. The Vice President for Student Affairs notifies new students each year of key college policies, including the Social Contract. Evergreen’s Social Contract has been in place for many years, is widely known on campus. The Social Contract includes a strong statement of academic freedom:
Evergreen's members live under a special set of rights and responsibilities, foremost among which is that of enjoying the freedom to explore ideas and to discuss their explorations in both speech and print. Both institutional and individual censorship are at variance with this basic freedom. Research or other intellectual efforts, the results of which must be kept secret or may be used only for the benefit of a special interest group, violate the principle of free inquiry.
An essential condition for learning is the freedom and right on the part of an individual or group to express minority, unpopular, or controversial points of view. Only if minority and unpopular points of view are listened to and given opportunity for expression will Evergreen provide bona fide opportunities for significant learning.
Honesty is an essential condition of learning, teaching or working. It includes the presentation of one's own work in one's own name, the necessity to claim only those honors earned, and the recognition of one's own biases and prejudices. (Link to Social Contract.)
The college has re-affirmed these commitments on several occasions during the past ten years. Following the selection of a controversial graduation speaker in 1999, President Jervis resisted nationally-organized pressure to revoke the speaking invitation and used the commencement ceremony as an opportunity to speak on the importance – both to an academic community and to a democratic society -- of hearing from unpopular points of view.
In 2005, in response to events at another university, the faculty passed a resolution reaffirming the value of academic freedom. (Link) In response to that resolution, President Purce published an essay on academic freedom in the local newspaper. (Link to Purce, “We must neither short-circuit the truth nor silence ideas,” Olympian (March 28, 2005) The administration’s public statements during times of controversy and protest on campus have consistently sought to reinforce these principles. (Links to Dodge, “Evergreen president opens door to protest,” Olympian, March 6 2003 and Purce, Astolphi, Minneart, “School presidents stand united against neo-Nazi hatred,” Olympian, July 2, 2006).
Finally, and most fundamentally, the structures and processes that Evergreen uses to construct and deliver its curriculum reflect a deep and continuing commitment to interdisciplinary inquiry. Evergreen remains committed to supporting its faculty in continuously designing and delivering the curriculum through an extraordinary interdisciplinary effort, without the constraints of academic departments or majors, under the guidance of Deans who are chosen from and return to the faculty. We remain “an institution and a community that continues to organize itself so that it can clear away obstacles to learning’s academic work.” (Link to Social Contract)
