Code of Conduct Spelman College is entrusted by society with great resources and commensurately great responsibilities for the creation, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge. Furthermore, the College is entrusted to uphold its mission and vision. Employees play a vital role in ensuring that high standards of ethical practice extends to the custody and use of these resources and to colleagues. Employees’ personal and professional conduct reflects on Spelman College, the collective professions, the higher education enterprise at large and the community. To guide employees in setting and practicing high standards of ethical conduct, the Board of Trustees and Management have adopted the following Code of Conduct. The employees’ conduct should be characterized by respect for the College, integrity and dignity, and employees should expect and encourage such conduct by others. Employees should adopt and adhere to the following standards of conduct - • accord respect to self and others and promote an environment of professionalism and helpfulness; preserve honesty in actions and utterances; give fair and just treatment to all; accept intellectual and moral responsibility; aspire to achieve quality; refuse conflict or the appearance of conflict between personal and institutional interests; and adherence to the Business Ethics and Conduct and Confidentiality policies; adherence to policies in documents such as the Faculty Handbook and the Employee Handbook; engender forthright expression of one’s own views and tolerance or acceptance for the views of others. The employees should act with competence and should strive to advance competence, both in self and in others. The employees should understand and support Spelman’s objectives and policies, should be capable of interpreting them within and beyond the institution, and, as appropriate, should contribute constructively to their ongoing evaluation and reformulation. The employees should communicate to institutional colleagues the content of this Code of Conduct and should strive to ensure that the standards of professional conduct contained therein are met. In discharging his or her duties in accordance with the Code of Conduct, the employee should enjoy the following: the opportunity to work in a professional and supportive environment; within the scope of his or her authority, the opportunity to exercise judgment and perform duties without disruption, harassment, intimidation, substance abuse, or violence; freedom of conscience and the right to refuse to engage in actions that violate the ethical principles contained in this Code or provisions of law. Policy No.  117  Effective Date:  5/1/2008