Policy: Academic Freedom 

Document Number: 1.009
Title: Academic Freedom
Effective Date: 08/08/2024
Revised Date: N/A

RPCC is committed to the principle of academic freedom. This principle acknowledges the rights of a faculty member to discuss, investigate, teach, conduct research, and publish as appropriate to their respective roles and responsibilities. The principle also includes the rights of a faculty member to exercise in speaking, writing, and action outside the College the ordinary rights of the American citizen, but it does not decrease the responsibility and accountability which a member of the academic staff bears to the College, the state, and the nation. Among the many implicit responsibilities that must be assumed by those enjoying the privileges of academic freedom shall be refraining from insisting upon the adoption by students or others of any point-of-view as authoritative in controversial issues. 

Academic freedom also extends to the library setting and to the library faculty in its selection and cataloging of library resources and in the dissemination of information concerning those resources. Such resources amplify the rights and privileges of faculty as concerned in the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) Policy statement. The principles of library academic freedom have been defined by the American Library Association (ALA). These governing principles include the Library Bill of Rights as adopted by the ALA on June 18, 1948, with subsequent amendments and the Intellectual Freedom statement as adopted on June 25, 1971, with amendments.