Values Platform: Goals
Mission Statement
Choices and Responsibility
Strategic Plan

Quotes

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Institutional Goals

 To establish those principles for the Emory University Campus Plan, not only were numerous members of the campus community interviewed, yielding the quotes which follow, but the values inherent in institutional publications have been reviewed. Excerpts from these sources of institutional goals are included here.
from the
Mission Statement 		Emory University has "two essential purposes: to help develop intellectual, aesthetic and moral capacities and to improve human well being through the quest for knowledge and public service."

Emory aspires to create a climate in which equality of all persons and openness to critical consideration of all ideas are encouraged and sustained.

Emory aims to imbue scholarship with the following qualities; a commitment to teaching, mentorship and collegial interaction, permeable disciplinary boundaries which encourage integrative teaching research and scholarship and a global perspective on the human condition.

from
Choices and Responsibility 		Building on the Mission Statement, this document has been adopted as the values platform for Emory University. It recommends that the following values be adopted and amplified:
  1. Preserve and strengthen the commitment to excellent teaching while advancing research.
  2. Break down barriers between schools and departments to encourage interaction across disciplines to create a "hybrid vigor."
  3. Create a shared sense of purpose, responsibility and values to unify the university.
  4. Extend the mission of service to Atlanta, the nation and the world.

"The university environment should intensify our sense of motivation and commitment, affirmation and accomplishment. It should tap. . . cross disciplinary relationships that can make the university greater than the sum of its parts. It should enhance its members shared sense of purpose. . . "

In the creation of community it is important to keep key questions and statements in mind:

"What practical ways can be found to build a stronger community and greater awareness of community at Emory?"

"What elements of community...are most critical and how can they be enhanced. . . ?"

". . . how can the goals and values of these communities be made more harmonious. . . ?"

". . . how can we create a more intense and pervasive intellectual community at Emory. . . "

"We need to do a better job of sharing information with one another. . ."

Because good governance is essential it must be facilitated through greater collaboration between the administration and the governing bodies, encouragement of participation and making people aware of common interests.

Emory must develop ways to promote communication and vet issues.

Emory must ". . . abandon our tendency toward excessive administrative autonomy and insularity in favor of a policy of facilitated hybridization. . . "

"Facilitate more informal interaction among students and faculty by removing physical barriers."

". . . find. . . effective ways to weigh all. . . priorities against one another before making decisions. . . "

In order to achieve these objectives Emory must provide "better access to support resources", "better utilize existing support capacity," "remove barriers to cooperation," "avoid redundancy" and "assure that in every way possible, future campus plans and development enhance the intellectual ambience of the university."

Other keys include establishing and fostering a mentoring environment, working to reduce fragmentation, facilitating community participation in decision making, and providing space for the intellectual life to flourish.

"...Structural impediments to creating an environment of trust which allows casual interaction, and encourages individuals to speak and listen" must be removed.

from the
Draft Strategic Plan 		The Strategic Plan advocates six principle strategic propositions which will directly impact the campus plan:
  1. Emory University will continue to aspire to the highest attainable level of intellectual and moral excellence.
  2. Emory will remain committed to providing public service of the highest order of quality and usefulness.
  3. Emory will seek to provide its faculty and students with a supportive environment that will enable them to achieve their potential.
  4. Emory University will continue to be selective and focused in its programs, with emphasis on quality rather than size.
  5. Emory will continue to seek new resources and to use them to greatest effect in advancing its goal of academic preeminence.
  6. As we strive to become one of the nation's preeminent research universities, Emory will be guided by the moral precepts set forth in Choices and Responsibility.

The Strategic Plan references the Ten Public Policy Issues for Higher Education In 1996 as identified by the Association of Governing Boards of Universities and Colleges. Each has implications for physical planning of the institution.

  1. Cost Containment and Productivity
  2. Affirmative Action
  3. Student Financial Aid
  4. Governance and Privatization
  5. Federal Tax Debate
  6. Economic Development
  7. Federal Research Issues
  8. Distance Learning and Technology
  9. Campus Climate
  10. Regulation and Accountability

From the ten policy topics, the Strategic Plan issues seven institutional priorities to be addressed. Of these, three are particularly relevant to the campus planning effort:

  1. Emory must continue to recruit, develop and retain outstanding faculty.
  2. Emory must increase its efforts to enroll academically excellent, highly motivated students who will be the leaders of tomorrow.
  3. Emory must fund further capital improvements to provide critically needed space for teaching and research and strengthen its technological support for them.


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Copyright © 1997 Emory University.
Last updated October, 1999.