It is a foundational Quaker belief that all persons have an inner spirit of truth available to them, often known as the “Inner Light” or “God’s Voice Within.”
From this belief follows an assumption of the 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 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.
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. We seek to be helpful, trustworthy, and considerate in all interpersonal relationships. 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.
Earlham students recognize that respecting the dignity of every person is essential for creating and sustaining a flourishing, learning community. They understand and appreciate how their decisions and actions impact others and are just and equitable in their treatment of all community members. Conduct that violates this value includes, but is not limited to:
- Public Exposure. Excluding events and endeavors deemed by the College as appropriate expressions of art, includes deliberately and publicly exposing one’s intimate body parts; public urination, defecation, and public sex acts;
- Alcohol. Use, possession, or distribution of alcoholic beverages or paraphernalia except as expressly permitted by law and the College’s Alcohol Policy at https://earlham.edu/policies-handbooks/approach-to-alcohol/;
- Drugs. Use, possession, or distribution of illegal drugs and other controlled substances or drug paraphernalia except as expressly permitted by law and the College’s Drug Policy https://earlham.edu/policies-and-handbooks/community/illegal-drug-and-drug-paraphernalia-policy/;
- Prescription Medications. Abuse, misuse, sale, or distribution of prescription or over-the-counter medications;
- Failure to Comply. Failure to comply with the reasonable directives of College officials or law enforcement officers during the performance of their duties and/or failure to identify oneself to these persons when requested to do so;
- Financial Responsibilities. Failure to promptly meet financial responsibilities to the institution, including but not limited to: knowingly passing a worthless check or money order in payment to the institution or to an official of the institution acting in an official capacity.
- Arrest. Failure of any student to accurately report an off-campus arrest by any law enforcement agency for any crime (including non-custodial or field arrests) to the Office of Student Life within seventy-two (72) hours of release.
- Other Policies. Violating other published College policies or rules, including all Residence Hall policies;
- Violations of Law. Evidence of violation of local, state, or federal laws, when substantiated through the College’s conduct process.