4800 - Language Skills

A. The hallmark of an educated person is the ability to speak and write well: simply, clearly, observing the standards and conventions of English usage, and consciously suiting tone to audience. Every member of the UI faculty and professional staff is expected to demonstrate this ability. Moreover, it is society's reasonable expectation that the demonstration of such ability will have been required of each candidate who is recommended by the faculty for a degree bearing the name of the University of Idaho.

B. The responsibility for guiding students in acquiring this ability rests with every member of the UI faculty and professional staff, including teaching assistants. UI's responsibility cannot be discharged in its entirety by requiring a specific number of English courses, nor can it be shouldered solely by the language specialists in a single department or by the members of a few departments. In a very real sense, it is shared by all who have occasion to observe the spoken and written expression of students. Though not every faculty and staff member can be an expert in language skills, all UI professional appointees are encouraged to foster an atmosphere–inside and outside the classroom–in which they demand appropriate standards of usage, correct gross errors, discourage carelessness, identify unacceptable performance, and reward those who speak and write well.

Version History

Amended January 2010. Editorial changes.

Adopted 1979.