Faculty Council Guidelines

The Faculty Council Guidelines for Search Committees:
Addressing a candidate’s expected contribution to the mission of the College

It is the mission of Saint Michael’s College to contribute through higher education to the enhancement of the human person and to the advancement of human character in the light of the Catholic faith. . . .In fidelity to its mission, Saint Michael’s College is focused on student learning and personal development. It is the intellectual, personal, social, moral, and spiritual development of each student that is the goal of every one of the policies, programs, and activities at Saint Michael’s College.

This mission statement attempts to articulate the “distinctive character” of the College and is stated and explicated on the first pages of every College Catalogue. It is accompanied by a helpful discussion of the traditions of the Edmundites, the Catholic religious community who founded Saint Michael's. For example, it is clear that our mission is “student centered,” and that there are five specific values of this tradition that we attempt to foster in the day to day lives of our students, faculty, administrators and staff. They are:

  • Respect for the dignity of all persons
  • Excellence in the search for the truth in all things
  • The promotion of moral character
  • A commitment to service
  • A strong sense of community

We are a Catholic college and, as such, we seek to participate in the contemporary international dialogue of the Church and the world. People from all faith traditions make a vital contribution to our mission and are welcome at Saint Michael’s. We value religious, intellectual, ethnic and gender diversity and actively seek its representation in our community. Indeed, the Edmundites have been leaders in the civil rights movement and their work in peace and justice issues is widely known.

One of the distinctive strengths of our academic culture is the freedom and encouragement to address issues of morality, ethics, religion and spirituality openly, in ways that may not always be welcome in public institutions. Our mission thus encourages all members of the faculty to engage actively these types of issues from their own religious and/or spiritual perspectives, and engagement is valued more than passivity. To quote Elie Wiesel, “The opposite of love is not hate, but indifference.”

In light of the above, we encourage candidates to address why they are seeking a position at Saint Michael’s and how the mission might influence their teaching, scholarly activity and service. While there is no one “correct” response, we are bound to view more favorably those candidates who genuinely support the values expressed in the mission. Thus we attempt to hire the most competent faculty who are most likely to help us continue to achieve our mission.

The College abides by the traditional norms of academic freedom and there have been no threats to that freedom in recent memory. The following is our formal position on academic freedom as it appears in our Faculty Regulations:

Section II, F: ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Principles
The College supports the following principles related to academic freedom:

  • Faculty members, as teachers and scholars, have full freedom in research, subject to performance of other academic responsibilities.
  • They have the freedom to publish the results of their research.
  • They have the freedom to plan courses and discuss their subjects according to the dictates of their training and knowledge.
  • They have the freedom to speak, write, or act on public issues as citizens without institutional censorship or discipline.

Responsibilities
Recognizing the responsibilities imposed by the principle of academic freedom, faculty members agree to respect the following:

In lecturing or teaching, they should support the basic mission and goals of the College. While free to discuss objectively any political or religious issue in which they have competence, and to state their position freely, they should respect the freedom of students to take a contrary position without imposing a penalty on those who do.

When speaking, writing, or acting as citizens, they should remember that the public may judge their profession and their institution by their utterances or actions; hence they should make every reasonable effort to be accurate, exercise appropriate restraint, show respect for others, and indicate that they are not speaking or acting on behalf of the institution.

They should encourage the free pursuit of learning by students, maintain the highest scholarly standards, and treat their students with respect.

They should respect the confidential nature of the professor-student relationship when they serve as intellectual guides and counselors.

They should make every reasonable effort to foster honest academic conduct by the students and to evaluate the students according to their true merit and accomplishment.