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There is now a CONTENT FREEZE for Mercury while we switch to a new platform. It began on Friday, March 10 at 6pm and will end on Wednesday, March 15 at noon. No new content can be created during this time, but all material in the system as of the beginning of the freeze will be migrated to the new platform, including users and groups. Functionally the new site is identical to the old one. webteam@gatech.edu
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Atlanta, GA | Posted: April 29, 2019
Institute Communications
Summary Sentence:
The Office of the President convened a working group to assess the situation and to identify the Institute’s recommended core values: integrity, respect, community, accountability, and adaptability.
Full Summary:
The Office of the President convened a working group to assess the situation and to identify the Institute’s recommended core values: integrity, respect, community, accountability, and adaptability.
Tech Tower, Atlanta skyline
Georgia Tech Core ValuesThe campus community wants clarity when it comes to the Institute’s values. That was part of the feedback received via the Ethical Culture Indicator (ECI), a survey distributed to employees last fall to measure the state of the Institute’s ethical climate and culture. To ensure that everyone in the Tech community knows the core values and acts accordingly, the Office of the President convened a working group to assess the situation and to identify the Institute’s recommended core values: integrity, respect, community, accountability, and adaptability.
President G.P. “Bud” Peterson began the process of identifying the core values by asking the Institute’s four representative bodies — the Faculty Executive Board, the Staff Council, and the graduate and undergraduate Student Government Associations — to suggest values. Once those values were compiled along with values recommended by the Institute’s leadership, a working group was formed to discuss and determine the final recommended values.
The committee was comprised of: Joe Hughes, Faculty Executive Board; David Brown, Staff Council; Evan Gillon, Undergraduate SGA; Andrew Cox, Graduate SGA; Ling-Ling Nie and Aisha Oliver-Staley, Ethics and Compliance; Kim Harrington, Human Resources; Andrew Billing, Office of Strategic Consulting; and Lynn Durham, Office of the President.
“More than 30 values were suggested by the representative bodies and the Institute’s senior leaders,” said Durham, associate vice president and chief of staff for the Office of the President. “The working group discussed each suggested value in the context of how it applies to Georgia Tech’s culture and the ethical values and behaviors that should be demonstrated by us all. Ultimately, five values were selected and many other suggested values were incorporated in the final description and expected behaviors.”
The five core values with definitions of each are posted to Georgia Tech’s ethics website, with a section for employees to provide comments.
“If anyone would like to provide feedback on the values, the working group would be very receptive and appreciative,” said Durham.
In May, the Executive Leadership Team will finalize the values and work with Institute Communications and the vice president for Ethics and Compliance to make the core values an integral part of the campus conversation.
Ling-Ling Nie, general counsel and vice president for Ethics and Compliance, said, “This summer our office will work with campus leaders to outline ways to increase awareness of the core values among all faculty, staff, and students.”
Tech leadership will work with Human Resources and the Office of Faculty Affairs to include the demonstration of the core values in the annual performance evaluation for all employees.
