Foundation Laid for a Just Community on Campus Date: June 30, 2000 By: Chris Curran Phone: (513) 556-1806 Archive: Campus News The University of Cincinnati is more than a place where students attend classes and earn degrees. It is a community of 50,000 people from enormously diverse backgrounds. Interests span the alphabet from Accounting to Zoology. Culturally, you can find students and faculty from every state in the United States and more than 80 different countries. Students range in age from their teens to senior citizens. Quite literally, UC is a "different" place to be. The Just Community initiative began several years ago to build a common foundation supporting all the differences you will find at UC. That foundation will be unveiled during the 2000-2001 academic year -- a set of core values that were developed by all and can be accepted by all in the UC community. "These core values will have the highest degree of support from across the university," explained Mitchel Livingston, founder of the Just Community initiative and Vice President for Student Affairs and Human Resources. "It's defining who we are, and what we believe in." A draft set of principles was developed in collaboration with students, faculty and staff over the past three years. During the last academic year, feedback was gathered from across the campus community. This summer, a consulting group -- William M. Mercer, Inc. -- is analyzing that feedback and working with UC leaders to revise the Just Community principles. Finally, the principles would be adopted as a "compact," formally accepted by the major governing groups on campus, and distributed through all major university publications. "We want to make these principles ubiquitous," said Livington. The most visual representation of the Just Community initiative will be created during Student Orientation this summer. Teams of students will each be asked to create a special flag, demonstrating what a Just Community means to them. During Welcome Week, all 60 flags will be stitched together to create the backdrop for the beginning of the new academic year and the beginning of a new challenge for UC. "I call this the race to the starting line," said Livingston. "It took us three years to reach this point. Now, the real journey begins...to move from a fiercely independent, fractured community toward 'a more perfect union.' That's the challenge."