Institutional Involvement - Forum on Community Values

Remarks given by NUSAC Chair, Rebecca Griffiths, at University Forum on Community Values in October 2004

Good Evening Everyone.  I am very excited to be here tonight at this Forum on Community Values.  My name is Rebecca Griffiths and I am the current Chair of the Northwestern University Staff Advisory Council (NUSAC).  I was asked to speak tonight and offer the staff perspective on values here at the university, and I am honored to have this opportunity.  The issue of values, for any organization, is an important one.  It has been almost 30 years since we gathered together around this topic.  It is a positive step that as a community, we are coming together to talk about our values.  More importantly, tonight we are working together to begin a process of developing relationships and creating solutions that will move us forward in achieving the Highest Order of Excellence. 

When I was asked to speak on the topic of values, several questions immediately came to mind.

1. What are current staff values?

2. What are current university values?

3. Is there a conflict between these two that could pose a dilemma, both for staff and the university?

4. What are some possible solutions for these conflicts?

In considering these questions and realizing that I would be speaking for “The staff,” I immediately turned to resources here at the university, starting with members of NUSAC of course, for assistance in answering some of these questions.  I reviewed the mission statements for both the University and NUSAC, I read both Highest Order of Excellence documents, and the paper from the 1977 forum titled “Northwestern’s Hidden Curriculum.”  I also reviewed staff issues that were brought to NUSAC in recent years and the various topics that were presented at NUSAC brownbag events, as well as gathered information from university committees on which I serve – I essentially sought as much information as I could, in the short time I had.

It may come as a surprise to some of you, but what I learned is that staff at the university feels undervalued.  Whether the issue was career opportunities and advancement, compensation, benefits, or work environment, staff members feel their contributions to the institution are under appreciated.  I asked myself, why would staff have this perception?  When I spoke with staff members about why they felt undervalued, they often gave examples such as receiving minimal pay increases that don’t keep up with the rising costs of living and healthcare, the limited advancement opportunities at the institution, and a scant amount of respect from their supervisors.  As a member of the Council that represents the staff here at the university, naturally I was concerned about the issues that staff members brought to our attention.  But I also wanted to find out if there was any validity to these claims.  So, I went back to the original information sources mentioned earlier to see what I could find.

In the 1998-2002 Highest Order of Excellence final report, which included Campaign Northwestern, the main sections were broken into four categories, 1) invest in faculty, 2) intensify the undergraduate experience, 3) redesign graduate education and strengthen professional education and 4) build the infrastructure for teaching and learning in the 21st Century.  It outlined in detail the financial and other resources that would be allocated to achieve these initiatives. 
After reviewing this document, it became easier to understand why staff members feel undervalued at the university. While the topic areas of the 1998-2002 plan were key to the growth of Northwestern, the main focus of this document was on faculty and students.  I was surprised to find that of the more than 100 actions items, less than five were specifically related to the enhancement and/or support of university staff members.  This was an eye-opener for me.
As Chair of NUSAC, it is my responsibility to bring staff issues forward and to work with the University to seek solutions.  There is a direct correlation between where an organization puts its resources and how much the organization values that area.  This document showed a great disparity in the financial resources that are allocated for staff issues, in comparison to the resources allocated to other areas of the university.  This disparity could be perceived by staff members to mean that they are a lower priority and that they are not seen as a vital part to the success of Northwestern.

However, I was pleased to read on pages 12 & 13 in Part II of the Highest Order of Excellence plan (2005 to 2010), that the university has inserted one section of strong language that begins to address staff issues and that the University has, as quoted in the new plan, “…recognizes the need to recalibrate, reorganize, and strengthen administrative support … Because of the vital role academic and institutional staff personnel play in facilitating every aspect of living and learning in a scholarly community, we believe we need to rethink the models of staffing and support now used in the University, and experiment with new approaches that will bring higher levels of specialized expertise to the operations of the University.”

This new, proactive language shows that the university recognizes that staff members are (in fact) vital contributors to the operation and success of Northwestern.  As Chair of NUSAC, I am glad to see that we staff members are becoming a central part of the University’s priorities. But this PART II draft is just a beginning.  The administration and board of trustees need to welcome staff as a partner in planning the future of Northwestern.  Staff members must be involved in the development and implementation of goals, action plans and evaluation tools that encompass Part II of the Highest Order of Excellence.

As members of the Northwestern community, I believe we all hold the same values (excellence, diversity, innovation, recognition, service), and that these values assist us in achieving our goal to raise Northwestern to the highest of levels.  Each of us works toward these goals in a different way (whether it’s processing payroll or financial aid, teaching both inside and outside the classroom, etc) but all of these works are done in the spirit of fulfilling Northwestern’s Mission of “…excellent teaching, innovate research, and the personal and intellectual growth of its students in a diverse academic community.”   As I said in my opening statement, it is important that we are here today as a community to talk about the value issues we face.  NUSAC and university staff members look forward to working with the groups here tonight, and others, as we resolve some of these issues.  Together we can achieve the Highest Order of Excellence.

Thank you.