October 7, 2019
Dear Campus Community,
UC Merced is a unique and special institution because of the dynamic community of thinkers and leaders who share a commitment to envision, create, and enact new and better worlds. We came to this university to seek and create knowledge and find new solutions to society’s most enduring problems.
Guiding us on this mission are the university’s core values that serve as a foundation that guides all that we do and establishes our collective expectation to create and foster a healthy, inclusive, safe and supportive learning and work environment. This means we center the margins by embracing, valuing, and building upon the lived experiences and knowledges students, staff, and faculty bring with them in these educational spaces. We are grounded in a shared understanding of collaboration, cooperation, and coalition that drives our foundational principles.
As leaders of our respective stakeholders, we write to you today, united, because we understand the importance of highlighting and affirming UC Merced’s core values, which are comprised of these pillars:
UC Merced continually strives for excellence in carrying out the university's mission of teaching, research and public service. As a key component of carrying out our mission, we promote and celebrate the diversity of all members of its community.
We believe every student possesses a unique and valuable perspective that enriches and transforms our community. We celebrate our location in California’s San Joaquin Valley, which provides unique opportunities to shape our communities and enable students to become engaged citizens.
At UC Merced we steadfastly uphold the concepts expressed in the University of California Diversity Statement including, “the variety of personal experiences, values, and worldviews that arise from differences of culture and circumstance. Such differences include race, ethnicity, gender, age, religion, language, abilities/disabilities, neurodiversity, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic status, geographic region, and more.” We affirm that a diverse campus furthers our mission to create, interpret, and disseminate knowledge and values.
We support the principles of academic freedom that protect the freedom of inquiry and research , teaching, learning, expression, and publication. These freedoms enable the university to advance knowledge and to transmit it effectively to its students and to the public.
Our aspirational principles reflect UC Merced’s ongoing efforts to increase access and inclusion and to create a community that nurtures lifelong learning and growth for all of its members.
We are a community committed to the highest ethical standards and are committed to practicing ethical, legal and professional behavior in all of our dealings inside and outside the University.
We acknowledge that we have a responsibility to demonstrate those values by leading by example. We encourage you all to join us in embracing these values as we strengthen partnerships and build relationships across the campus.
Together,
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