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BINM is committed to providing an outstanding education in naturopathic medicine which includes: research and discovery, integration of information across disciplines, application of knowledge in service to the community, and dissemination of knowledge to the student body, profession and community at large. As such, the BINM exists for the common good of society and not merely for the good of the Institute or any of its individual members. The common good depends upon the unhindered search for knowledge and its free exposition. Academic freedom is essential to both these purposes in that faculty and students must always be free to question and test received wisdom, to study and evaluate, and thereby to gain new understanding and insights. Members of the Institute and all others invited to participate in its forum shall not be hindered or impeded in any way by the Institute or any of its subgroups from exercising their legal rights as citizens, nor shall they suffer any penalties because of the exercise of such legal rights. Academic members of the community are entitled, regardless of prescribed doctrine, to freedom in carrying out research and in publishing the results thereof, freedom of teaching and of discussion, freedom to criticize issue-directed opinion, and freedom from institutional censorship. Academic freedom does not require neutrality on the part of the individual. Rather, academic freedom makes commitment possible. Academic freedom carries with it the duty to use that freedom in a manner consistent with the scholarly obligation to base research and teaching on an honest search for knowledge and in accord with accepted standards of professional ethics for teachers at institutions of higher learning. All members of the BINM, and especially administration, must recognize the importance of the fundamental principle of academic freedom and must share responsibility for supporting, safeguarding and preserving this freedom. |
Policy on Academic Freedom
