Part V, Section II: Statement on Professional Ethics

The East Carolina University faculty and administration expect all ECU faculty to perform all their job responsibilities in conformance with the following Statement on Professional Ethics modified from the American Association of University Professors: Professors, guided by a deep conviction of the worth and dignity of the advancement of knowledge, recognize the special responsibilities placed upon them. Their primary responsibility to their subject is to seek and to state the truth as they see it. To this end professors devote their energies to developing and improving their scholarly competence. They accept the obligation to exercise critical self-discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge. They practice intellectual honesty. Although professors may follow subsidiary interests, these interests must never seriously hamper or compromise their freedom of inquiry.

1. As teachers, professors encourage the free pursuit of learning in their students. They hold before them the best scholarly and ethical standards of their discipline. Professors demonstrate respect for students as individuals and adhere to their proper roles as intellectual guides and counselors. Professors make every reasonable effort to foster honest academic conduct and to ensure that their evaluations of students reflect each student’s true merit. They respect the confidential nature of the relationship between professor and student. They avoid any exploitation, harassment, or discriminatory treatment of students. They acknowledge significant academic or scholarly assistance from them. They protect their academic freedom.
2. As colleagues, professors have obligations that derive from common membership in the community of scholars. Professors shall not discriminate against or engage in hostile conduct toward members of the university community. Expressing disagreement with others is an essential component of professional academic conduct, but professors shall refrain from bullying: that is, unwanted offensive and malicious behavior which undermines an individual or group through persistently negative attacks, typically with an element of vindictiveness and behavior calculated to undermine, patronize, humiliate, intimidate, or demean the recipient, and typically severe or pervasive and persistent, creating a hostile work environment. Professors shall respect and defend the free inquiry of associates, even when it leads to findings and conclusions that differ from their own. Professors shall give proper acknowledgement to the ideas and data of others and strive to be objective in their professional judgment of colleagues. Professors shall accept their share of faculty responsibilities for the governance of their institution.
3. As members of an academic institution, professors seek above all to be effective teachers and scholars. Although professors observe the stated regulations of the institution, provided the regulations do not contravene academic freedom, they maintain their right to criticize and seek revision. Professors give due regard to their paramount responsibilities within their institution in determining the amount and character of work done outside it. When considering the interruption or termination of their service, professors recognize the effect of their decision upon the program of the institution and give due notice of their intentions.

As members of their community, professors have the rights and obligations of other citizens. Professors measure the urgency of these obligations in the light of their responsibilities to their subject, to their students, to their profession, and to their institution. When they speak or act as private persons, they avoid creating the impression of speaking or acting for their college or university. As citizens engaged in a profession that depends upon freedom for its health and integrity, professors have a particular obligation to promote conditions of free inquiry and to further public understanding of academic freedom. (Faculty Senate Resolution #11-93, January 2012)

Faculty Senate Resolution #11-44, March 2011
Faculty Senate Resolution #11-93, January 2012
Faculty Senate Resolution #21-24, April 2021
Faculty Senate Resolution #23-31, May 2023 (final approval October 2023)
Faculty Senate Resolution #25-14, March 2025