Cabinet Agreement of Expected Behaviors

Cabinet’s Principles of Community Agreement

Western Michigan University transforms lives through the creation of successful students and new knowledge. We believe that a strong and resilient culture is required in pursuit of the full measure of those ideals. We aim to build a culture based on trust.

We agree to:

  • Team work: We make each other successful. No one person is greater than the institution, our mission, or our goals.
  • Accountability: We are mission- and institution- focused. We are responsible for making decisions and behaving in a manner that engenders faith and confidence, treats people fairly, and puts our students and society first. We will ask the same of all faculty and staff.
  • Openness: We communicate openly and honestly. We thoughtfully consider new ideas that are not our own.
  • Action: We have a bias for action. We create a well-considered plan, do it, and iterate. We bring good ideas into the world first as small pilots, and then improve what works over time.
  • Collaborative Risk-Taking: We have a high regard for those who go first in pursuit of bold, provocative, disruptive ideas that advance or mission. We learn from our mistakes, but they do not slow our pace.
  • Positive-Intent: We make generous assumptions about our colleagues’ actions. And when actions have an unwelcome impact or make those assumptions difficult, we address it kindly, directly, and with the intent of positive resolution.