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(Adopted by the Board of Trustees February 22, 1992)
The central purpose of the College is to foster the free access to knowledge, its unfettered discovery and communication through research and education, and the creation and sustenance of a community of scholars and students. The College community can realize these goals only in an atmosphere of trust and respect. Discrimination and harassment will not be tolerated in the Smith community.
Smith College is committed to creating and maintaining an educational, working, and living environment that is free of any form of unlawful discrimination. Smith College is committed to a policy of non-discrimination toward its students and its employees, and it will not tolerate unlawful harassment based on race, color, creed, handicap, national/ethnic origin, age, religion, sex, sexual orientation, or disabled veteran/Vietnam-era veteran status.
The College has, therefore, created the following guidelines and procedures for the resolution of grievances alleging violation of its Civil Rights Policy. While these procedures provide sanctions for speech and behavior that violate state and federal law, importantly, they also describe ways of resolving informally the various conflicts and disagreements inevitable in a community distinguished by many kinds of diversity. These guidelines and procedures are available to anyone who, at the time of the alleged violation, is either employed by or enrolled at Smith College. They are intended to provide a fair, prompt, and reliable mechanism for determining whether the Civil Rights Policy of Smith College has been violated and, if so, to provide appropriate resolution. No College faculty member, staff member, or student is exempt from the jurisdiction of this policy. The availability of these procedures to all individuals does not limit the responsibility of the College to insure that the protection of the Civil Rights Policy prevail throughout the College community. Nor are these guidelines and procedures intended to impair or limit the right of any individual to seek a remedy available under state or federal law.
These procedures are not intended to inhibit or restrict the free expression or exchange of ideas. The procedures address unlawfully discriminatory or harassing behavior. In an academic community the remedy for ideas believed to be distasteful or offensive should be confrontation with other ideas and superior evidence, not administrative sanction. To this end, the College has adopted as fundamental policy a Statement of Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression. Speech or expression protected by this Statement is not subject to sanction under these procedures.
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About
the Handbook
Table
of Contents
Introduction
Master's
Program, Summer
Master's
Program, Winter
The
Academic and Field Work Performance Standing
Committee
Administrative
Policies & Procedures
Other
School Policies
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