Center for Studies in Higher Education

The occasion of the 50^th anniversary of the University of California’s Faculty Code of Conduct is an opportune time for this unique CSHE paper, which documents the web of policies, rules, procedures, norms and institutional actors related to faculty discipline at UC campuses, including the socio-political context of successful and unsuccessful reform efforts across the decades.  Compared to other spheres of college and university governance, rules and norms for disciplining faculty misconduct are less frequently the subject of sustained attention by scholars of higher education.  Today’s administrative and faculty leaders must be ready to adeptly handle faculty discipline cases for many reasons, including public accountability and trust, stewardship of the conditions for research and knowledge creation, civil rights/legal compliance, deterrence, transmission of ethical norms and values to all present and future members of the academic community, and to ensure that the organizational climate does not discourage talented and diverse students from pursuing careers in the professoriate.