A Statement of Vision and Charter Commitment
Vision
Oregon State University is on the path to become a truly great university. We have created a vision that calls for us to achieve excellence in all that we do - with particular emphasis on excellence in our teaching, scholarship, and service activities. The greatness that we seek will only come through a university-wide commitment to create, nurture and sustain a dynamic and vibrant educational community - a community that elevates teaching, learning, experimentation, inquiry, discovery, and outreach as core institutional activities.
Our University will be great because we create a context in which all our members can aspire to and pursue individual and collective greatness. “Greatness” encompasses the opportunity to achieve one’s full intellectual potential, reveal one’s true humanity, contribute based on one’s ability, grow in ways that expand one’s possibilities, and enhance one’s relationships and appreciation of the complexity of the human experience.
To achieve the level of success that we seek requires us to acknowledge the significance of diversity and place diversity at the core of OSU’s institutional identity. Diversity is a core attribute of our educational mission.
We envision our university as a dynamic, stimulating, multicultural learning community, one that both challenges all its members to grow, and provides support and encouragement to do so. We believe that strong and unambiguous support for Cultural Centers and cultural communities is an essential component of our commitment to greatness.
Charter Commitment
Cultural Centers attract and retain students and faculty as micro-communities within the larger community. They serve as a refuge to celebrate and to find solace, to find support and challenges, to facilitate and share a broad understanding of all aspects of a diverse range of cultures. As such, we commit that Cultural Centers will be a part of Oregon State University, not in lieu of the larger University community, but as enrichment to it.
This commitment encompasses these on-going and continuous elements:
We commit that the leadership of the Cultural Centers and other leaders of Oregon State University to a partnership that supports and enhances the development of the Cultural Centers for the benefit and enrichment of all at the university.
We commit that the Cultural Centers and their respective cultural communities that currently serve the OSU community will exist as identifiable entities; and
We commit that a Cultural Center will not be moved from its current location unless the leadership of that cultural community has been consulted with and endorses the change by consensus, regardless of who initiates the conversation. The expectation is that the affected cultural community will be involved early and in all aspects of the conversation regarding future direction.
These commitments go far beyond affirming to a relationship between the OSU Cultural Centers and university leadership. We are also committing the university to a style of leadership for the long-term future. We are committing OSU to a collaborative leadership model through which significant decisions that shape and alter the cultural landscape of the university will be made. We are committing future institutional leaders to honor and engage in collaborative leadership at every level of decision making with respect to the Cultural Centers.
Through this document we make the future status and institutional commitment to the Cultural Centers an unambiguous matter for future leaders. Responsible leadership requires that we neither create nor pass on leadership dilemmas for those who come after us, by failing to act with integrity now.
We commit that those issues of land use, program development and decision making that we confront now and in the future will be addressed through shared responsibility for shaping our common future. We commit Cultural Center leaders and other university leaders to the responsibility to think, dream, and plan together about the future of the Cultural Centers. In doing so we move to reduce the need for crisis leadership and increase the potential for shared leadership.
We advance this agreement because we believe deeply that our best institutional life lies before us. OSU’s full potential will be realized only if we have the full investment and engagement of all community members. Our commitment to the Cultural Centers is, at its core, a commitment to the best possible future for Oregon State University - one that continues to develop a university that is diverse in all dimensions, characterized by innovative, energetic, and responsible leadership, and noted for its intellectual, cultural and social vitality.
Signatures:
Asian Cultural Center
Deborah Ngan Internal Coordinator
Chelsea Walker External Coordinator
Janet Nishihara Advisory Board
Sally Wong Advisory Board
Black Cultural Center
Golden Munyaka Internal Coordinator
Kelva Chávez External Coordinator
Robert Thompson Advisory Board
Lani Roberts Advisory Board
Centro Cultural César Chávez
Marco Antonio Chávez Internal Coordinator
Edith Quetzalli Quiroz External Coordinator
Erlinda Gonzales-Berry Advisory Board
J. Antonio Torres Advisory Board
Native American Longhouse
Jonelle Whitman Internal Coordinator
Luhui Whitebear External Coordinator
Linc Kesler Advisory Board
Paul G. Risser President
Phyllis S. Lee, Director, Office of Multicultural Affairs
Timothy P. White Provost and Executive Vice President
Nancy Rosenberger President, Faculty Senate
Larry D. Roper Vice Provost for Student Affairs
Justin Geddes, President ASOSU
Mark McCambridge, Vice President for Finance and Administration
Date Signed: January 22, 2002