Franklin & Marshall College is a scholarly community whose aim is to create an environment for human learning. Toward this end, students and faculty working together in close relationship pursue not only knowledge but also wisdom. In their mutual devotion to intellectual discovery, each stimulates the other. The prerequisite for the continuing success of this endeavor is academic freedom—the freedom to teach and learn. As full members of the College community, therefore, students, like faculty, are encouraged to develop their capacity for critical judgment and to engage in a sustained and independent search for truth. The rights, freedoms and responsibilities of students outlined below are essentials for the realization of this goal.

Academic freedom depends for its vitality upon appropriate conditions in the classroom, on the campus and in the larger community. The responsibility to secure and maintain these conditions is shared by students, faculty and administration.