2015-2016 Graduate Academic Catalog

Page 4 2015–16 Graduate and Adult Programs Academic Catalog Graduate Programs The Cedarville Graduate Student Experience The Cedarville Graduate Student Experience Cedarville Covenant We are a community of believers accountable to one another, called to reflect the character of Jesus Christ and to be obedient to His Word. We will be faithful in our support for the local church and in our practice of the spiritual disciplines. We will practice biblical principles of encouragement, exhortation, and reconciliation. We commit ourselves to integrity, kindness, purity, and self-control; and to continual growth in scholarship, leadership, and service. Therefore, as members of the Cedarville community, we regularly affirm our commitment to the Cedarville Covenant with this pledge: We will love God and others, live with integrity, and pursue excellence in all we do. Standards of Conduct At Cedarville University, we believe that the principles found in the Bible should govern our daily lives. We recognize that our appearance, words, and actions are a manifestation of our relationship to Christ and a testimony to believers. In addition, we believe that regular attendance and involvement in a local church is evidence of a maturing relationship with Christ. All graduate students are expected to adhere to the guidelines below. You may access these guidelines online at cedarville.edu/ gradstudentlife . • As a community of born-again believers, we believe that pleasing and glorifying God in all that we do and say is an expression of our gratitude to God’s grace and love in our lives (1 Cor. 10:31; 2 Cor. 5:9). We believe it is important to be people of integrity who are truthful in speech and honest in conduct. Therefore, all should seek to serve Christ in an atmosphere free from attitudes of distrust, dishonesty, selfishness, damaging criticism, disrespect, favoritism, unethical conduct, and irreverence (Psalm 15; Matt. 5:33–37; Prov. 15:4; Rom. 13:9–10; Col. 3:8–9; James 2:1–13; Gal. 3:26–29; Rom. 13:1–2; 1 Tim. 2:8). • The University affirms its belief that our interpersonal relationships are to reflect the biblical principle that all people are made in God’s image and are equal in value. We believe it is important to express our love for others through acts of kindness as well as wholesome and uplifting speech (1 Peter 5:5; Eph. 5:21; Phil. 2:3–11; Rom. 14:1–23; 1 Thess. 4:9; Col. 3:12–13). Therefore, it is the expectation that all forms of harassment (which include racial/ethnic, and sexual- and gender-based harassment) are prohibited. In addition, we believe threatening, intimidating, coercing, using abusive or vulgar language, violence or violent threats, or interfering with the performance of other students or employees are neither God-honoring nor acceptable behaviors within or outside the work place and classroom.. • Because of our commitment to moral purity in both thought and action (2 Cor. 7:1; 1 John 3:3), all acts of sexual immorality are viewed as unacceptable behavior (I Cor. 6:18–20; 1 Thess. 4:3–8). • Because of our commitment to moral purity in thought and action (2 Cor. 7:1; 1 John 3:3; Matt. 5:27–28), accessing, possessing, and distributing or downloading pornography is prohibited. • We believe that God has given the gift of intimacy to marriage (Hebrews 13:4). Therefore, we believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity should occur outside of marriage. We believe that the only legitimate marriage is the joining of one man and one woman (Gen. 2:24; Rom. 7:2; 1 Cor. 7:10; Eph. 5:22–23). • Based on our commitment to moral purity and the gift of intimacy in marriage, we believe that all acts of sexual immorality are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex, i.e., homosexuality, lesbianism, incest, fornication, adultery (Rom. 1:21–27; 1 Cor. 6:9; Gen. 2:24; Eph. 5:31). Therefore, engaging in, living a lifestyle characterized by, or promoting a lifestyle that is in contradiction to this biblical position is prohibited. Graduate students living on campus will have additional standards of conduct expectations as a member of the Cedarville University residential community. Behavior that is not in compliance with the above standards of conduct or that are a felony violation of state or federal law can result in corrective action up to and including expulsion from the University.