An important milestone took place as everyone was coming back from spring break on Sunday. This milestone was the fifth anniversary of the signing of the Virginia Tech Principles of Community, which occurred on March 14, 2005. This anniversary provides an opportunity to take a closer look at the Principles:
“Virginia Tech is a public land-grant university, committed to teaching and learning, research, and outreach to the Commonwealth of Virginia, the nation, and the world community. Learning from the experiences that shape Virginia Tech as an institution, we acknowledge those aspects of our legacy that reflected bias and exclusion. Therefore, we adopt and practice the following principles as fundamental to our on-going efforts to increase access and inclusion and to create a community that nurtures learning and growth for all of its members.”
This opening paragraph is crucial because it helps to set the stage and to reaffirm whom and what Tech is all about. It includes an important phrase that deals with the reflection of Tech’s past. This reflection is a powerful acknowledgement of the institution’s experience with issues of bias but also is a commitment to learn from these situations.
“We affirm the inherent dignity and value of every person and strive to maintain a climate for work and learning based on mutual respect and understanding.”
This first affirmation helps to build the foundation by acknowledging the importance and value of each person. This helps to ensure that no one is purposely left out within the community.
“We affirm the right of each person to express thoughts and opinions freely. We encourage open expression within a climate of civility, sensitivity, and mutual respect.”
This second affirmation builds upon this framework through its commitment to free speech and the environment in which we express those thoughts, regardless of what they are about. This second affirmation is perhaps the most discussed and most controversial of the statements because of how it can be interpreted.
“We affirm the value of human diversity because it enriches our lives and the university. We acknowledge and respect our differences while affirming our common humanity.”
This third affirmation is the most important because it acknowledges the value of human diversity, regardless of what that diversity is about. It emphasizes the impact of respect and how we need to respect each other within the community.
“We reject all forms of prejudice and discrimination, including those based on age, color, disability, gender, national origin, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, and veteran status. We take individual and collective responsibility for helping to eliminate bias and discrimination and for increasing our own understanding of these issues through education, training, and interaction with others.”
As the statement continues, we get into making a firm and deliberate stance against discrimination. While a number of categories are listed, it does not exclude other items that may arise. The listing of categories sends a powerful message of recognizing the differences that exist within our community. This statement also asks each one of us to take “individual and collective” responsibility. We ourselves play a key part in this area. The burden is not solely on the shoulders of the institution. The institution can set the standard and we as community members need to play our respective parts.
A version of this article appeared in the Mar 16 issue of the Collegiate Times.
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