As Clark University administrators and staff, we seek to reaffirm the values that guide our work and our daily interactions with other members of this learning community: faculty and students. We face the next century with the conviction that together we are continually building a learning community that is inviting for all and in which we can all take justifiable pride.
We write this compact at a time when the idea of community in contemporary society is more myth than reality. While we are saddened by this fact, we are not discouraged. We find inspiration in Clark University’s mission statement: “To teach students to be imaginative and contributing citizens of the world.” Because we are serious about this mission, we must, as members of a smaller community, encourage the imagination and recognize the contributions of each person who chooses to work, study, or teach at Clark University.
When we recognize each other’s contributions to this learning community, we appreciate the extraordinary interdependence of our work. If the University is to continue to flourish, the interactions between student and teacher, support staff and department head, and administrator and faculty member must be well tended. When we acknowledge our interdependence, we face a simple truth: The successes and the failures of this institution are shared by each of us. As administrators and staff of Clark University, we commit to using our intellect, imagination, and spirit to fulfill the University’s mission.
Administrators and staff at Clark take pride in the support we provide faculty and students in their roles as scholars, teachers, and learners. The complexity of the work we support requires that each member of the University be a social architect, shaping the norms and values that created an open and caring community.
As we create an enviable University community, we believe Clark’s historical and cultural integrity should influence our choices, decisions, and policies. The University we seek to create is full of comfortable spaces for learning and scholarship, where the numerous doors and windows have unused locks. We want to build a University where striving for the norm is held suspect, and traditional boundaries can be crossed while fresh ideas are welcomed from every quarter of our community.
As administrators and staff, we want this University to be applauded because it is a unique community, where common goals are clear, our interdependence is well recognized, and our successes and failures as a learning community are owned by all who choose to work, study, or teach here.
The University community we have described requires each administrator and staff member to bring certain core values to their work. In dedication to the University’s teaching and research mission, each of us strives to demonstrate these values:
- Integrity: An uncompromising approach to applying the highest ethical standards to our interactions with faculty, students, the public, and one another;
- Respect: Regard for each member of the University community, and his/her contribution to the well-being of the institution;
- Professionalism: A caring, competent, and knowledgeable voice in each interaction with faculty, students, the public, and one another;
- Cooperation: Forthright and open working relationships and communication among members of the University community;
- Efficiency: Effective, responsible, and creative use of limited resources;
- Commitment: A tradition of “volunteering self” in the University, the higher education community, and in the greater Worcester community;
- Growth: Recognition that staff development and self-improvement are essential to a vital organization and to effective individual performance;
- Enthusiasm: Appreciation for the long-term success of the University and an inclination to celebrate its on-going accomplishments.
As administrators and staff members, we embrace these values as we carry out our work with good humor and compassion.
