Caring University

Towards a Code Of Conduct

(generated from 3 Nov 09 session)

• Share nicely. Don't hit. Be considerate of others' feelings. Clean up your own mess.
• Respect differences. Learn from each others' experiences while developing our own. Open our mind to the fact that there is more than one path leading to every destination or accomplishment.
• Respect everyone. Celebrate successes. Acknowledge contributions. Agree to disagree where appropriate. Talk! Open door policy (senior/junior). Encourage mentoring.
• Allow for a creative approach, such as freewriting, during times of constrained resources & heightened expectations.
• Patience. Willingness to assume more than one's normal share of responsibility. Put oneself at risk. Clear communication. Find an accurate basis for criticism. Honesty.
• Ask people about their work—how are their classes going?—have there been any rewarding moments, any real challenges in the classroom? If they mention their research, ask them about t and try to understand, even if it's in an area that is foreign to you. Care genuinely & listen to what people say. Always respond in some positive way before offering criticisms, if any.
• Appreciate, or at least tolerate and engage the reality and experience of those who make sense of the world in ways your own certitude dismisses.
• Listen actively before responding. Invite both-and thinking rather than either-or. Realize that everyone constructs their own reality and truth. Realize that beliefs are not truths even tho' they structure [??]
• Before proceeding in frustration, stop to think & empathize with others, how they might feel, what parameters or challenges they might be deadline with. Seek opportunities for compromise.
• Engage in active reflective listening, especially when we find ourselves reacting negatively to a colleague's or a student's comments or actions. Strive to understand.
• Students are treated respectfully (whether or not you agree). Students are constructively engaged in learning activities (not just lectured to).
• View collaboration as a means of gaining insight about our behavior, rather than only a way to "get a job done." Be open to gentle nudges from others about ways to collaborate more openly to the processes of others.
• In addition to the social and personal aspect of a caring university, there is intellectual involvement and engagement with each others' ideas and work.
• When interacting with a colleague or other member of the community, proceed on the assumption that the other person is really trying to be constructive.
• Create a safe environment for people to say what they are thinking. Really listen. Don't rush to judgement. Share good news and don't advance bad news and gossip.
• Apply the "golden rule." Treat individuals and ideas with respect. Take ideas of others with respect, but analyze them rigorously. Share ideas, don't hoard them.
• Peaceful & respectful environment for dialogue. Privacy. Honest feedback.
• Break disciplinary boundaries. Trust faculty more & let them teach what they do research on & write on, rather than their discipline alone. Provide flexible funding (not much) for each course to spend on related course expenses.
• Be respectful to the enthusiasm of others, be it teaching/research/achievement related. Recognize being part of an "integrated," not siloed community. Acknowledge the value of all constituents. Communicate decisions (good & bad) in a way that reflects fairness in the decision process.
• Lead with warm respect for one another. Cultivate our sense of humor (which is vital for perspective-gaining). Embrace "ambiguity" as a springboard for recognizing new possibilities. Think about what needs to be changed, modified, revised and be proactive as a creative thinker and problem solver.
• Organize academic units around meaningful questions of practice/theory, rather than "disciplines." Establish interdisciplinary academic programs (up to PhD) in transnational cultural community studies.
• Break disciplinary boundaries. Trust faculty more & let faculty teach what they do research & write on, rather than their discipline alone. Provide flexible funding (not much) for each course to spend on related course expenses.
• Respectful, non-hierarchical community. Responsivity—timely communication and sharing of information. Shared excitement about success of others, rather than allowing those processes to generate competition & resentment. Share rather than hoard ideas, resources, etc.
• Treat every exchange as though you might encounter the student 20 years later crossing the street at Copley Square.
• Discussion of humane workloads—which requires prioritizing goals so that we can achieve some balance between work & life
• Treat others respectfully/how you want to be treated
• Think of positive ways to develop ideas/Don't automatically tell someone that an idea won't work
• Ask questions. Don't make assumptions about people
• Be flexible in your thinking
• Encourage others to expand their own thinking
• Engage in open communication
• Plan- spoken, direct communication
• Respecting and working with people as professionals
• Listen attentively and carefully. Elicit information. Put yourself in their shoes. Golden rule.
• Talk to people you have seen for years but never talked to.
• Every issue or problem is everyone's responsibility-not "someone else's.
• Informal gathering to discuss-not just graded. Profound respect for students regardless of academic ability-students are brave, putting themselves out there. Programs for wellness. Opportunities for engagement in recreation.
• Staying person centered when considering the issues (without personalizing comments). Focusing on roles and goals
• Offer lunches with extraordinary food on a regular basis with administrators and faculty and students and staff to dialogue about common themes, getting to know one another- human to human with no titles/position.
• Colleagues make a real effort to attend talks/presentations given by other colleagues. When faculty have expertise in an area, call on themn to participate when outside speakers are invited
• Try to understand how others understand the situation and what they are struggling with. Remember one's own priorities and hold steady on them. Find out what's really important to do. Be nice to faculty if they are to do their work with students
• A way of relating to one another so the quality of the relationship is enhanced by the mutual trust that develops
• Be respectful of others. be responsible- keep your commitments. Be oriented toward solving problems and having follow through (not passing the book)
• A caring university respects the dignity and human rights of everyone without status distinctions. All members of the community have rights to resources and conditions promoting educational growth and constitution to knowledge
• Willingness to listen, to change, to show that we care for each other. Suspend judgement. "Academics of the heart" must take good care of themselves (See Laura Rendon for more details)
• Respect for other's disciplines. Communication among colleagues/departments. Obtain a positive attitude. LISTEN. Take responsibility for your actions.
• Ask colleagues what great research projects they are working on in the last year.
• Generosity
• Treat every exchange as though you might encounter the student 20 years later, crossing the street at Copley Sq.
• Discussion of humane workloads- which would require prioritizing goals so that we can achieve some balance between work and life
• Open, respectful communication. Ongoing dialogue. Community building.

Inverse of the negative examples of not being cared for

(These tend to refer more to practical measures, while the above ones are more like principles. A few words were omitted so as to preserve anonymity and not to single out some identifiable situation.)

• Provide reimbursements in a timely way
• Give acknowledgement for many contributions made
• Give students, the most vulnerable among us, the recognition and support they need to move from hardship to opportunity
• Respond to notes and emails
• Look for expertise of a UMB faculty member rather than inviting an outside speaker in the same area
• Attend presentations that one's colleagues have invested in preparing for.
• Don't herd students into courses they're not ready for
• Don't put classes of 30 into rooms that are sufficient for only 20
• Make it less difficult to start a new course
• Replace the terrible classroom chairs UMB has
• Reduce turf wars that inhibit interdisciplinarity
• Communicate more among units about things that impact our work
• Communicate less about things that we can do nothing about
• Enact Boyer's scholarship on engagement (aka integration of empirics with application)
• Don't let technologies for accommodation (e.g., screen readers for the blind) take so long to get put in place
• Don't say one thing and do another
• Recognize work done outside university
• Raise hell, don't passively accept budget cuts
• Refund to students $$ spent on poor teaching
• Don't be more concerned about one's own needs than those of the university as a whole
• Change the bureaucratic operations/culture so that fewer students report insensitivity about vulnerable issues in their interactions with the university bureaucracy
• Change the bureaucratic operations/culture so that requests for information are met
• Change faculty expectations/culture so that students' requests for help are met
• Recognize adequately the importance and value of the community service mission of the university
• If a new initiative is cancelled, the circumstances should be communicated and the effort preparing for it should be acknowledged and compensated for
• Try to understand how to use a new program; don't insult it
• Don't focus on student's grammar when they ask for direction about ideas
• Communicate among departments
• Tolerate the sincerity of an individual's expressed experiece and belief even if contrary to what you "know."
• Match an emphasis on what people accomplish with what they offer as supportive colleagues to others
• Tolerate the sincerity of an individual's sincere experience & beliefs even those that your own certitude dismisses
• Have grants & research offices follow through on suggestions for collaborative projects
• Firm commitment to recognize scholarship of engagement (which is more than public service)
• No department meetings scheduled outside academic year
• No angry emails