Faculty Handbook

INTRODUCTION

105 ABOUT THIS HANDBOOK

110 THE HANDBOOK REVISION COMMITTEE, TASK FORCE OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE COUNCIL, 1997-1998

115 ACCREDITATION

120 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

125 MISSION OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE

125.1 POLICY STATEMENT ON HEALTH AND SAFETY

105 ABOUT THIS HANDBOOK

The information in this handbook has been prepared to inform you about current Columbia College practices, policies, and benefits so that our working relationship will be one of mutual understanding and cooperation. This Handbook is not intended to be, and is not, a contract of employment, nor does it create any contractual or other legal rights. Rather, this Handbook is simply an explanation of existing policies and procedures and is designed solely as a guide. All items contained in the handbook are subject to the above provisions.

110 THE HANDBOOK REVISION COMMITTEE, TASK FORCE OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE COUNCIL, 1997-1998

Dianne Erpenbach (Faculty, Management Department)

Randall Albers (Chairperson, Fiction Writing Department)

Charles Cannon (Chairperson, Science And Math)

Les Van Marter (Chairperson, Liberal Education)

John Mulvany (Chairperson, Photo/Art Department)

Bert Gall (Provost/Executive Vice President)

Caroline Latta (Academic Dean)

Lya Dym Rosenblum (Vice President/Dean Graduate School)

Barbara Iverson (Faculty, Academic Computing)

Luke Palermo (Faculty, Television)

Mark Withrow (Faculty, English)

Ed Morris (Chairperson, Television Department)

Dennis Rich (Chairperson, Management Department)

115 ACCREDITATION

Columbia College is accredited at the graduate and undergraduate levels by the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools and by the Illinois Office of Education. Columbia College is a completely independent and unaffiliated institution of higher learning.

120 EQUAL OPPORTUNITY

Columbia College is an equal opportunity employer. It is College policy that there shall be no discrimination against any employee or applicant for employment because of age, race, color, creed, sex, religion, handicap, disability, sexual orientation, and national or ethnic origin.

This policy applies to all employment decisions including hiring, promotion, selection for training, demotion, transfer, recruitment, recruitment advertising, layoff, termination, or benefits.

In conduction searches for qualified applicants for employment, all faculty members must comply with the College's equal opportunity policies and procedures. It is the College's intent that such searches should include a maximum effort to recruit and hire qualified women and minorities in compliance with the College's commitment to equal opportunity.

Inquiries concerning the College's equal opportunity policies may be referred to the Office of Human Resources.

125 MISSION OF COLUMBIA COLLEGE

Columbia College is an undergraduate and graduate College whose principle commitment is to provide a comprehensive educational opportunity in the arts, communications, and public information, within a context of enlightened liberal education.

Columbia intent is to educate students who will communicate creatively and shape the public's perceptions of issues and events and author the culture of their times. Columbia is a distinctly urban commuter institution whose students reflect the economic, racial, cultural, and educational complexities of contemporary America. Columbia conducts education in close relationship to a vital urban reality and serves an important civic purpose by active engagement in the life and culture of the city.

It is Columbia's Purpose:

1. To educate students for creative occupation in diverse fields in the arts and media, and to encourage awareness of their aesthetic relationship and the opportunity of professional choice among them;

2. To extend educational opportunity by admitting without restriction (at the undergraduate level) a student population with creative ability in, or inclination to, the subjects of Columbia's interest;

3. To provide an unpressured college climate that offers students and opportunity to try themselves out, to freely explore and discover what they can and want to do;

4. To give educational emphasis to doing, to the work of a subject, by providing a practical setting, professional facilities, and the example and guidance of an inventive faculty who work professionally at the subjects they teach;

5. To teach students to do expertly the work they like, to master the crafts of their intended occupations, and discover alternative opportunities to employ their talents in settings other than customary marketplaces;

6. To help students find out who they are and enjoy themselves, discover their own voices, respect their own individuality, and improve their self-esteem and self-confidence; and

7. To offer specialized graduate programs which combine a strong conceptual emphasis with practical professional education, preparing students with mature interests to be both competent artists and successful professionals.

125.1 POLICY STATEMENT ON HEALTH AND SAFETY

It is the policy of Columbia College that every employee is entitled to a safe and healthful place to work. To this end, the College will make every effort in the interest of ecologically sound practices, accident prevention, fire protection, and preservation of health. In addition to providing our employees with a safe and healthful place to work, it is also our policy to protect our assets against adverse financial impact from physical loss and liability, the continual practice and implementation of effective loss control and loss prevention in our daily activities is consistent with and required by both of these policy objectives.

It is the responsibility of each officer, supervisor, department chairperson, and employee to ensure that his/her own operations and activities are in compliance with these basic policies. While the ultimate responsibility rests with the College's senior administrations, the active cooperation, assistance, and implementation by each and every employee is required. Please report violations for these basic policies to the Office of the Provost/Executive Vice President. Columbia College is a smoke- free environment. Smoking is allowed in personal offices.