VCOM Administrative and Classified Staff Handbook

or gathering information for the purpose of enforcing any federal or state law; • Where VCOM is required to comply with valid court orders, warrants, or subpoenas or other valid legal processes; and/or • In an emergency to protect the physical safety of any person or group of persons. VCOM will take and enforce all reasonable security measures appropriate for the sensitivity of the information to ensure that all personal information for every employee is protected against any form of unauthorized use, including but not limited to, accidental or malicious disclosure, unauthorized access, unauthorized modification, unauthorized duplication, or theft. Methods of security will include, but not be limited to physical security including locked filing cabinets and secure-access offices; organizational security including security clearances and access limited on a need to-know basis; and technological security including passwords and encryption. When an employee leaves the institution, only the employee’s personnel file will be maintained and for a period of seven years. No release of information, including those for references, will be made without written consent of the employee, unless otherwise required as set forth above. VCOM continually monitors and utilizes the latest technology to protect its electronic records. Despite these protections, electronic breaches may nonetheless occur as the result of illegal cyber-attacks. VCOM assumes no liability for such breaches. Relationship to Students A primary responsibility of employees is to promote an academic environment conducive to the maximum development of students. Employees are encouraged to be familiar with and support those policies directly affecting students. VCOM expects faculty, staff, students, and administration to exhibit professional behavior. VCOM believes that an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect between students and faculty is essential to a healthy medical school environment where students may flourish. Employees will serve as role models to students in the application of ethical principles in the classroom, at the patient’s bedside, and in the community. VCOM’s goal is to produce highly qualified and knowledgeable osteopathic graduates who are dutiful and who exhibit integrity and compassion. Education at VCOM is conducted for the common good and not to further the interest of an individual teacher or the financial initiatives of VCOM. Faculty will devote their efforts to developing and improving scholarly competence and should use self-discipline and judgment in using, extending, and transmitting knowledge to students. Faculty will be accurate and intellectually honest in their presentations to students. Employees will exercise professionalism in all interactions with students as outlined. The environment of trust between students and faculty can be diminished when persons in positions of authority abuse their power. Employees will not exert their authority to further a personal cause. Consensual relationships between students and employees who have access to the student’s records or who has any role in the student’s supervision or evaluation is not permitted. Those consensual relationships between students and employees who do not have such access or roles should be pre-approved by the Campus Dean. Employees engaged in unethical conduct of this type are subject to disciplinary procedures up to and including termination from the College. Relationship to the College Community VCOM is a professional osteopathic medical college where expectations of the medical community are often higher than that of the general population. Professional and ethical behaviors are expected of the college students, faculty, and staff always, whether at work or in the community. Illegal acts, unethical acts, and acts that discredit VCOM, and are not worthy of a professional college employee are reasons for suspension and possible dismissal. The employee should not represent themselves as acting as an agent of VCOM, except when the program is deemed to

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