Faculty Handbook
Updated July 2007
Guilford College is accredited by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools [1866 Southern Lane, Decatur, Georgia 30033-4097, telephone 404-679-4500,Web site: www.sacscoc.org]to award baccalaureate degrees.It is also affiliated with the Council on Post-secondary Education. Guilford is on the list of colleges and universities approved by the American Medical Association, and the teacher education program is accredited by the North Carolina Department of Public Instruction and the National Council for the Accreditation of Teacher Education. Credits earned at Guilford are accepted at face value in admission to graduate and professional schools and in certification of teaching.
Guilford College holds membership in a number of organizations formed by colleges and universities: the Association of American Colleges and Universities; the American Council on Education; the North Carolina Adult Education Association; the National Association of Independent Colleges and Universities; the North Carolina Association of Independent Colleges and Universities; the North Carolina Honors Association; the National Collegiate Honors Council; the Friends Association for Higher Education; The College Board; the Southern University Conference; and the North Carolina Association of Colleges and Universities. It is ranked as a Baccalaureate I Selective Liberal Arts College by The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.
Guilford College Statement of Purpose
Guilford College is an educational community which strives to integrate personal, intellectual, physical and spiritual growth through participation in several rich traditions.
These traditions include liberal arts education which values academic excellence and stresses the need in a free society for mature, broadly educated men and women; career development and community service which provide students, whatever their age or place in life, with knowledge and skills applicable to their chosen vocations; and Quakerism, which places special emphasis on helping individuals to examine and strengthen their values. We believe that the wise and humane use of knowledge requires commitment to society as well as to self.
The Quaker heritage stresses spiritual receptivity, candor, integrity, compassion, tolerance, simplicity, equality and strong concern for social justice and world peace. Growing out of this heritage, the College emphasizes educational values which are embodied in a strong and lasting tradition of coeducation, a curriculum with intercultural and international dimensions, close individual relationships between students and faculty in the pursuit of knowledge, governance by consensus and a commitment to lifelong learning.
Guilford College expects each student to develop a broad understanding of our intellectual and social heritage, and at the same time to develop a special competence in one or more disciplines. Flexibility in the curriculum encourages each student to pursue a program of studies suited to personal needs, skills and aspirations.
While accepting many traditional educational goals and methods, the College also promotes innovative approaches to teaching and learning. Both students and faculty are encouraged to pursue high levels of scholarly research and creativity in all academic disciplines. Guilford particularly seeks to explore interdisciplinary and intercultural perspectives and to develop a capacity to reason effectively, to look beneath the surface of issues, to understand the presuppositions and implications of ideas, and to draw conclusions incisively, critically and with fairness to other points of view.
The College desires to have a "community of seekers," individuals dedicated to shared and corporate search as an important part of their lives. Such a community can come about only when there is diversity throughout the institution - a diversity of older and younger perspectives, a diversity of racial and cultural backgrounds, a diversity of beliefs and value orientations. Through experiencing such differing points of view, we seek to free ourselves from bias.
As a community, Guilford strives to address questions of moral responsibility, to explore issues which are deeply felt but difficult to articulate, and to support modes of personal fulfillment. The College seeks to cultivate respect for all individuals in an environment where considered convictions, purposes and aspirations can be carried forward. (Statement of Purpose adopted by the Guilford College Faculty and Board of Trustees, 1985)
The Guilford College Vision Statement
Guilford College's sustained commitment to teaching and to graduating leaders will strengthen its national and regional identity as the outstanding small, values-oriented liberal arts college in the American South. Guilford College will be a national model for excellence in values-based education grounded in both the liberal arts and career preparation. This is in keeping with the Quaker interest in "all things civil and useful" as well as our commitment to preparing our graduates to serve, to lead and to change the world for the better.
The Guilford College Mission Statement
Guilford College's mission is to provide a transformative, practical and excellent liberal arts education that produces critical thinkers in an inclusive, diverse, environment, guided by Quaker testimonies of community, equality, integrity, peace, and simplicity, and emphasizing the creative problem-solving skills, experience, enthusiasm, and international perspectives necessary to promote positive change in the world.
Toward that end the college provides:
- student-centered instruction that nurtures each individual amid an intentionally diverse community.
- a challenging academic program that fosters critical and creative thinking through the development of essential skills: analysis, inquiry, communication, consensus-building, problem-solving, and leadership.
- a global perspective that values people of other cultures and the natural environment in which we all live.
- a values-rich education that explores the ethical dimension of knowledge and promotes honesty, compassion, integrity, courage, and respect for the individual.
- access to work and service opportunities that forge a connection between thought and action.
Guilford seeks above all to create a special kind of learning community. We are not perfect at this. Our goal of creating independent thinkers and change agents necessarily pulls against the needs of community, and our great diversity of backgrounds sometimes works against our professed acceptance of and equal respect for all individuals. We are as a community at best in a perpetual state of becoming.
Nevertheless, in writing about Guilford in Colleges that Change Lives, Loren Pope describes how there is "a special sense of family here." He notes of the college that "it truly is a friendly place," while also being "a stimulating place where the teachers care, where they expect a lot, and where they provide the encouragement as well as the challenge to get young people to do things they had no idea they could do." Guilford, he concludes, is "a fine example of a college family that is doubling talents."
We intend to continue to work toward being that community: a learning community defined somewhat paradoxically by both challenge and nurture, a community which produces compassionate graduates who are independent thinkers, risk-takers, and change agents possessing a strong moral compass.
Message From the President
At Guilford College, we strive to be a community where each individual has a voice that is valued and respected. In an atmosphere of fact-based discussion, as we exchange opinions and earnestly seek to benefit from our diversity, the use of this handbook can help sustain a system of transparent governance.
Students, staff, administrators, and faculty contribute essential elements to the life of the college, yet the academic program is our core business. Therefore, the faculty handbook is a guide for understanding how the college is structured and how it operates. It describes college procedures and explains how Quaker meeting concepts are used in decision making. The handbook also contains the terms of faculty employment and describes faculty responsibilities and benefits.
As a living document, subject to amendment and change, employee handbooks are now available in an on-line version that can be printed if needed. The current edition updates the previous edition issued in 1998. I urge you to keep this handbook in a safe, but accessible, place and to periodically review its contents. I invite you to participate in the life of the Guilford College community actively and knowledgeably.
Kent John Chabotar, President
Introduction
The purpose of the Guilford College Faculty Handbook is to set out the guidelines by which the Guilford College Faculty carries out its responsibilities for the educational program at the college. The Bylaws of the institution charge the faculty with responsibility for instruction and for providing activities outside the classroom setting "that will enhance the academic activities of students." Faculty also have responsibility for establishing faculty personnel policy and procedures to protect academic freedom and tenure. In the governance of the college, the faculty works in conjunction with the administration and the Board of Trustees. Final authority rests with the Board of Trustees but the faculty has primary responsibility for making and implementing the academic policies of the college.
This handbook contains the information regarding faculty procedures for conducting business as the faculty acts on its responsibilities. It contains institutional policies and procedures that affect faculty and other employees of the college, knowledge of which is necessary to the faculty. And it contains matters contractual in nature such as those bearing on faculty appointment, reviews, appeals, and the providing of benefits, which relate to the terms and conditions of the employment relationship. These matters are found primarily in Chapters II, III, and V.
The Clerk's Committee will oversee the process of making changes in the handbook. Changes in The Faculty Handbook may be proposed by any individual member of the college community, or by any standing committee. Proposed changes will be reviewed by any committee whose responsibility relates closely to the proposed changes. These proposed changes will be forwarded to Clerk's Committee for approval, which will decide which items shall also go to the faculty meeting for approval. The Clerk's Committee will forward all proposed changes, together with faculty and committee recommendations, to the President. The President will forward any contractual matters to the Board of Trustees for final action. Changes will take effect on the June 1 following approval by the Board of Trustees. Other changes require the approval only of the President to the extent practicable. These, too, will take effect on the June 1 following her or his approval. These items will be inserted into the Faculty Handbook by the Director of Human Resources. Each new insertion will be headed by a bracket indicating the date of approval and the name of the approving body. Deletions will be removed without trace.
This document was approved by the faculty at its meeting on April 22, 1995. The Board of Trustees approved the Guilford College Faculty Handbook on September 23, 1995.