In the heat of the primary election season-and what an interesting season it is proving to be-we hear a lot from politicians of various stripes about the importance of values, principles and standing for something.
Therefore, we naturally engaged this week in a little introspection and found ourselves stuck asking the same question: what do we value at the University of Tampa? What are our principles, our commitments; what do we stand for as a citizen?
From one angle, the answers seem deceptively simple. Like other corporate citizens in a corporate world, we value growth, expansion, and growing endowments. Favorable public relations, such as nice awards and articles, nicely augment our commitment to growth and “the bottom line.”
But what if we dig a bit deeper? What, as a citizen of Tampa, would the university like to be remembered for? What kind of long-term and steadfast commitments have we given to our Tampa community?
And within our own jurisdiction, what type of ethos and practices will we be known for? What of the fact that The Minaret has called, intermittently, for a coherent recycling program for nearly two decades? What does this say about broader sustainability issues that we haven’t even considered? What does the fact that administrative forces and professors have had to engage in a protracted standoff over the issue of domestic partner benefits say about our values?
And what about diversity, that laudable value consecrated in the pages of our university catalog? Are we really, at the institutional level, following our professed commitment to the diversity that we piously declare a key ingredient in our learning community? Do we practice what we preach, or will we retrospectively be viewed as nothing but the orators of a hollow hypocrisy, late to integrate last century and even later to come to grips with our exclusivist past?