Mission
The mission of Earlham College, an independent, residential college, is to provide the highest quality undergraduate education in the liberal arts, including the sciences, shaped by the distinctive perspectives of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
A basic faith of Friends is that all truth is God’s truth; thus Earlham’s educational emphasis on the pursuit of truth, wherever that pursuit leads; lack of coercion, letting the evidence lead that search; respect for the consciousness of others; openness to new truth and therefore the willingness to search; veracity, vigorous integrity in dealing with the facts; application of what is known to improving our world.
To provide education of the highest quality with these emphases, Earlham’s mission requires selection of an outstanding and caring faculty committed to creating an open, cooperative learning environment. The College provides for the continuous support and development of this faculty.
The teaching-learning process at Earlham is shaped by a view of education as a process of awakening the “teacher within,” so that our students will become lifelong learners. Students at Earlham are encouraged to be active, involved learners. The College provides extensive opportunities for students and faculty to interact with each other as persons and to learn from each other in a cooperative community, an important aspect of which is collaborative student/faculty research.
At Earlham College, this education is carried on with a concern for the world in which we live and for improving human society. The College strives to educate morally sensitive leaders for future generations. Therefore, Earlham stresses global education, peaceful resolution of conflict, equality of persons, and high moral standards of personal conduct.
Principles and Practices create a space where you know what to expect as far as how you will be treated and you know what others expect from you. It creates a community that can stand together when tested. The values gained through understanding and practicing them are important here and something people carry out wherever they go.” — Eric Nicholson ’17
Principles and Practices
Principles and Practices is a statement of the values that guide those of who live, work, teach and learn in this community. hey also provide the foundation for campus policies that apply to all members of the community, as well as our governance structure.
Principles and Practices grows out of two questions that the community continually seeks to answer:
What sort of community do we aspire to be?
Earlham is an educational community, informed by the distinctive perspectives and values of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and aimed at providing the highest quality undergraduate education in the liberal arts and sciences. We strive to be a community of mutual support, responsibility, and accountability.
Our educational values, shaped by Quaker perspectives, are as follows: truth-seeking, wherever the evidence may lead; rigorous intellectual integrity; the nurturing of an open, cooperative learning environment; the recognition of the “teacher within”; the merit of lifelong learning habits. These values are rooted in a commitment to caring for the world we inhabit, improving human society, promoting global education, seeking peaceful and just transformation of conflicts, affirming the equality of all persons, and maintaining high ethical standards of personal conduct.
This document speaks of the Earlham community in terms of “we”; however, we recognize that this is not a homogenous “we.” As an educational community, we are a changing group of diverse persons, bringing to this institution a variety of identities, as well as a great range of personal and cultural values, experiences, and perspectives. We are a community that deliberately welcomes persons of all religious faiths, all spiritual convictions, and those who have no religious affiliation or faith. We welcome this diversity, and the strength and transformations it makes possible.
What principles shape and sustain such a community?
Respect for persons, integrity, a commitment to peace and justice, simplicity, and community decision-making shape Earlham’s community. Together these principles reflect Earlham’s strong Quaker tradition. In acting according to these principles, we try to cultivate a community that values not only the development of broad knowledge and deep competencies, but an active, successful, and joyful engagement in human society and the world around us.
These principles inform our community, yet there is variation within the community in the ways these principles are put into practice. We welcome this variety of insight and interpretation and seek to learn from our differences. We acknowledge that practice of these principles may evolve with reflection by individuals and the community as a whole. By our daily actions, each of us contributes to the health and vitality of our community.
Principles, Practices and Queries
A note on ordering:
The order of the principles is not meant to create a hierarchy or to give priority to any one principle. Each is important and they are interconnected.
A note on queries:
We borrow the use of queries from Quaker tradition. Queries are meant as a means of self-examination or group examination, and inward reflection. Queries remind us that our actions are principled not because they conform to abstract rules, but because they are done thoughtfully and conscientiously. Queries take the shape of questions, but they do not have simple, uniform, unambiguous answers.
It is a foundational Quaker belief that all persons have available to them an inner spirit of Truth, often known as the “Inner Light” or “God’s Voice Within.”
From this belief follows an assumption of equality of all persons and grounds for respecting all persons. We commit ourselves to be a community whose members act with regard for the intellectual, physical and emotional well-being of everyone, while acknowledging that there are systems of oppression that we strive to dismantle that affect our own community. We seek to find mutual respect, trust and happiness in our relationships with persons of every race, ethnicity, class, religious preference, political affiliation, gender identity, physical ability, sexual orientation and age, including persons removed by time and place.
Practicing Respect for Persons
We aim to be respectful of others in our daily interactions. A small but meaningful mark of our attempt to meet one another as equals is our practice of addressing one another by first names regardless of titles and credentials.
In all of our activities, we seek to affirm and reinforce mutual respect, responsibility and caring. In all interpersonal relationships we seek to be helpful, trustworthy and considerate. As a community, we reject all coercive and destructive behavior in interpersonal relationships and seek to eliminate unintentionally harmful behavior in addition to intentionally harmful behavior.
Queries
- Am I mindful of how I engage with the community? When I express my disagreement, do I do so explicitly and respectfully
- Do I contribute to creating a trusting community that fosters the intellectual, physical, emotional and spiritual good of everyone?
- Am I physically and emotionally responsible in all my interpersonal relationships?
- Do I find considerate ways to encourage others to engage with Earlham’s principles?
- Do we examine ourselves as a community for evidence of prejudice and bias, and then work to overcome them?
The Quaker testimony of Integrity asks us to aspire to personal wholeness, honesty and truthful living. Integrity means completeness or one-ness and implies a commitment to speaking our truth. Integrity nourishes our trust in one another, allowing us to rely on one another and others to rely on us. It means openly and honestly engaging with each other as well as recognizing and working to change our own biases, both conscious and unconscious.
Academic integrity is particularly important in educational communities. These communities rely on all of members pursuing truth honestly, scrupulously crediting the work of others and taking credit only for one’s own work and discoveries.
Practicing Integrity
Integrity calls us to be truthful, honest, and fair and to take responsibility for our actions and decisions. We strive to be respectful and honest in our evaluations of each other’s work and behavior. We strive to undertake all our commitments and responsibilities in good faith. We aim to hold each other mutually responsible for living in accordance with our principles and policies. We strive to become aware of our unconscious bias and prejudice and confront them so that they do not compromise our Integrity.
Queries
- Do I seek ways to be open to others’ opinions while maintaining my commitment to critical thinking, intellectual rigor and truth-seeking?
- Am I careful to credit others rather than taking credit for works and ideas not my own?
- Do I seek the truth, and speak it even when it is difficult?
- Do we conduct College business in a way that guards and cares for our dedication to integrity?
- Do we work to minimize the gap between our actions and our convictions?
- Do I confront lapses in integrity in myself and others? Do I hold myself and others accountable?
Peace is defined by some as the absence of conflict and oppression. However, for many Quakers, peace is not an instance, it is an existence. Peace is action that works toward harmony, well-being, wholeness, prosperity, health, happiness, fulfillment, security, tranquility and safety for everyone.
The Quaker peace testimony holds that all forms of violence are an injustice that harm all parties involved, and violence does not provide a path to true, just and lasting peace. The peace testimony acknowledges that violence exists not only in personal interactions but also in the oppression and harm caused by unjust, unequal and inequitable institutional and social structures; here, peace is a direct product of justice, which seeks what is right, equitable, and honorable, and peace cannot exist without justice, as without justice, peace is impossible.
Many thoughtful and moral people disagree with the strong form of Quaker pacifism that deplores all forms of violence, but the Quaker peace testimony challenges Earlhamites to not only deplore violence and injustice, but to take action in seeking to resolve, repair, restore, reconcile, reconstruct, relieve, mediate and heal the harm that has been done.
Practicing Peace and Justice
Practicing peace means taking action towards the pursuit of justice and the common good, which is undertaken by all and for all. As a community, we aspire to work actively for the building of the institution of peace through equitable and nonviolent resolution of conflict, the removal of causes of violence and injustice, the relief of suffering, the equitable sharing of resources and the addressing of the roots of conflict and violence in our own behavior. We recognize and accept conflict as a necessary part of life with others, and work from conflict towards more just, nonviolent and sustainable communities.
Queries
- When conflicts arise, do I make earnest efforts to resolve them thoughtfully and without delay?
- Do I acknowledge and take action to rectify the violence that I may inflict on others?
- Do I take seriously and, according to my gifts and leadings, act on opportunities to further peace and justice?
- Am I, individually, intentional to use my own power for just and constructive ends?
- Do we seek out the ways Earlham as an institution can act as a local and global force for peace and justice?
- Do we, as an institution, examine power and privilege: who has it, and how should it be used?
The Quaker testimony of Simplicity invites us to recognize what is central in our lives by listening to inward leadings and learning from others. That listening can give us clarity as we make choices about the responsible use of our time and resources. A life guided by the testimony of simplicity can lead us to recognize what brings us joy and to be good stewards of personal, community and global resources. It replaces distraction, stress, and excess with clarity, focus and a sustainable life for all.
Simplicity enables us to discern what is really necessary for the well-being of ourselves, others, and the world. Living simply “cannot be reduced to lists of what is permitted or proscribed.2 ” Simplicity leads to joy, not guilt or judgment, for ourselves and others.
Practicing Simplicity
There are limits to one’s own time and energy, others’ time and energy, and the resources so unequally distributed throughout the world. We each aspire to make only just and reasonable demands on the time and resources of others, to model a balanced life for those around us, and to work toward a more just distribution of resources.
Queries
- What truly brings joy to my life? How can I organize my life to be in touch with that joy? How do I work to keep my commitments in a healthy balance?
- How do I show my commitment to simplicity as an individual and as a part of a community?
- In what ways do we as a community work for an environmentally responsible and sustainable future?
- How could we be allocating our resources more justly?
- How do we discern what constitutes simplicity?
2 Paul A. Lacey. Growing into Goodness: Essays on Quaker Education. Pendle Hill, 1998. p. 75
Earlham College, founded by the Religious Society of Friends, believes ideals that guide us are best encountered in a community of openness and mutual respect. Educational communities exist as an opportunity to discover and test truth. Because each person brings different knowledge and perspectives, truth-seeking is best fostered within community. As a result, the individual at Earlham has a great many opportunities,rights and responsibilities. As active, engaged members in this community, we come to know our interdependence and connectedness. As such we strive to create, contribute and care for all in our community, intentionally listening for perspectives that may not be present or heard. We aspire toward a commitment to celebrating each other, diversity, equitable opportunities and resources.
Earlham strives towards a community of caring which seeks the intellectual, physical, spiritual and emotional wellbeing of its members. Discerning the needs of others is an important dimension of learning. As members of a community, we aspire to consider one another in all our choices, including the use of our words, actions and resources and decision-making process.
In consultation with one another, we have the potential to make better decisions than individuals alone or majorities, which may ignore minority views. Differences can be sources for growth and new insight. Quakers’ belief in “the inner spirit of truth” means that all people have the potential to discover truth. Accordingly, we consult broadly, value diverse opinions, and are intentional with a goal toward inclusion of various voices in seeking consensus in decision-making.
Practicing Community
In Earlham governance, committees charged with decision making operate with consensus. Most student groups also use a consensus process. There are particular times and situations where an individual, e.g., the President, Cabinet member or Trustee(s), is charged with making a decision. In either case, those responsible should invite input, consult broadly, and listen carefully especially, to those who have deep understanding of the situation or may be affected by the decision. Consensus seeking assumes that all who participate are willing and open to finding a basis for right action whether that is an affirmation,recommendation, or decision. Those participating are encouraged as much as possible to have commitment to shared deliberation and insight rather than to their own opinions. At the same time, they should be mindful of voices and perspectives that may not have been evidenced during the process but are present within our community. We encourage the decision-making process to be as inclusive and equitable as possible given the breadth of diversity within the Earlham community.
Because our governance system designates various responsibilities to individuals, committees, small groups and the community as a whole, consensus does not require that every person participate in every decision. Respect for Persons and Integrity ask that community members trust the process and the faithful participation of others, even when they have not directly participated themselves. At the same time, these principles ask us to discern when to raise concerns, and when not to. These practices, as a reflection of our principles, will strengthen our community and improve our learning and living from and with each other where diversity, equity and inclusion ground our daily engagements.
Queries
- How clearly do I discern the ideals of the community and their meaning for my life?
- Do I participate in the activities of the College and assume my share of responsibility for our shared life within community?
- Do we strive to promote a community life that will foster the intellectual, physical, moral, and emotional wellbeing of all members?
- Do I have the wisdom to discern when to stand aside, allowing a consensus to emerge?
- Do we foster an atmosphere conducive to open dialogue, listening carefully to others and opening ourselves to opinions different from our own?
- Am I careful to consult, even if it may mean taking greater time in the process?