Faculty and Contract Staff Handbook
(1) Institutional History, Purpose, and Structure
(1B) INSTITUTIONAL MISSION
Changes made to the text of this chapter after August 1, 2001 and through August 1, 2002 are highlighted in white. Changes made to the text of this chapter after August 1, 2002 are highlighted in blue This highlighting may not be visible on printed copies. For a summary of these changes, or for the procedure for maintaining notice of recent Handbook changes, see Chapter 9A: Summary of Recent Revisions to this Handbook.
Contents of this page:
I. STATEMENT OF INSTITUTIONAL MISSION
Trinity University is an independent, coeducational university in the tradition of the liberal arts and sciences. It is related to the Presbyterian Church by historic ties, an ongoing association, and a Covenant of understanding. Trinity recruits and welcomes qualified persons of all racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, religious, or national origins.
Seeking to be faithful to its academic ideals and Judeo-Christian heritage, Trinity dedicates itself to the open pursuit of truth and knowledge. A Trinity education nurtures the development of intellectual insight, moral direction, and tolerance for diverse opinions through the involvement of faculty, staff, and students.
Trinity’s principal focus is on undergraduate education. Academic programs in the liberal arts and sciences and pre-professional and professional fields are consciously intertwined to provide mutually reinforcing intellectual experiences for students and faculty. The University offers selected graduate programs in professional fields that prepare individuals for their chosen careers.
The curriculum establishes for each Trinity undergraduate a foundation for understanding the varied domains of human knowledge and experience. The curriculum also develops the skills necessary for active participation in the academic life of the University and of the larger community. Paramount are the abilities to think in disciplined, critical, creative ways and to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing.
Through the entire Trinity experience, in and outside the classroom, the University prepares students for the lifelong quest for understanding themselves and their responsibilities in a changing world. Trinity believes this understanding to be the goal of a liberally educated person.
Trinity values the people who comprise its intellectual environment. The University recruits, develops, and retains outstanding faculty members dedicated to teaching, to scholarship and creative endeavor, and to service to the University and its community. It identifies and attracts talented and highly motivated students to its predominantly full-time, residential student body. Furthermore, Trinity provides a supportive and challenging experience wherein students, faculty, and staff can realize the full potential of their abilities and exercise their responsibilities to society.
Trinity encourages its students, staff, and faculty to identify and respond to the needs of the larger community. As an institution dedicated to serving this community, Trinity is committed to providing programs of continuing education, of intellectual enlightenment, and of cultural enrichment.
II. DIVERSITY
FOR EXCELLENCE AT TRINITY
A STATEMENT OF INTENT
(Adopted by the Board of Trustees, May, 1985)
Trinity University stands committed to the attainment of excellence in liberal arts education. It affirms that, in our pluralistic society and world, excellent education must be carried out in a pluralistic setting. To the extent that education is carried out in a monocultural context, the quality of educational transactions suffers, and any claim to excellence is seriously weakened. Socializing young people to be liberally educated citizens of a democracy must take place in a context where the diversity of the experience, points of view, interests, and contributions of their fellow citizens is fairly and unavoidably encountered.
As it moves toward recognition as a nationally distinguished educational institution, Trinity University recognizes that such status demands the achievement and maintenance of ethnic diversity within all of its constituent groups, thereby reducing the prospect that the University may be unfairly stereotyped. Trinity University is also a member of a community that is massively Hispanic in character and identity. This not only opens unique educational opportunities for all who teach and study at Trinity, but also places a special obligation on the University to be responsive to and to enrich the life of its larger community. Because of its national aspirations and location in San Antonio, Trinity University has a special responsibility to assure that minorities—Blacks and Hispanics in particular—become an integral and significant part of its constituencies.
Trinity University, therefore, affirms that promotion of diversity and avoidance of racial, sex, class and ethnic exclusivity are moral imperatives. It affirms that the University’s highest goal must be to educate men and women for moral sensitivity and responsible action in society. To achieve diversity for excellence, Trinity University will endeavor:
1. Actively to seek the enrollment and retention of significant numbers of qualified students of Hispanic, Black, Native American and Asian American origin.
2. Actively to promote the financial, academic and social conditions which will make it possible for qualified students of all ethnic and social class backgrounds to be significant components of, and positive contributors to, the Trinity University community.
3. Actively to seek a larger component of minorities and women in the Trinity University Faculty and Administration.
4. Actively to promote Trinity’s openness to social and ethnic diversity, using academic programs, lectureships, artistic endeavors and other means to create within the University community an awareness of the life, concerns and contributions of all national minorities.
5. Actively to promote, by similar means, Trinity’s appreciation of the special multicultural composition of San Antonio, and of the Hispanic culture of the region.
III. COMMITMENT TO EXCELLENCE
(Also known as Trinity
University: Commitment to Excellence. Approved by the Trinity University Board of Trustees, May 4, 1990)
In its commitment to excellence Trinity University is not only concerned with intellectual development, but also with moral and spiritual growth. The integration of body, mind, and spirit to achieve a wholeness in human life is fundamental to the well-being of the individual and to the very nature of the University itself. Recognizing these truths the University strives to create an atmosphere in which civility and human decency are expected, mutual respect and open communication are fostered, and sound religious faith and expression are encouraged.
In response to these principles Trinity University affirms the following:
1. The essential moral code rooted in the Judeo-Christian heritage has been foundational to Western civilization and continues to inform and shape life on the University campus.
2. Members of the University community are responsible for their actions and how those actions impinge on those around them.
3. Wisdom, good judgment and concern for others are to be held in higher regard than narrow, self-interest.
4. The basic rights and dignity of each individual are to be upheld in the climate of a just and humane environment.
5. Behavior that is psychologically or physically destructive either to the self or to others is unacceptable in the University setting.
6. An on-going and historic church relationship that encourages religious and academic freedom is a positive force both in the continuing development of the University and in fostering a Christian presence and ethos on the campus.
7. The willingness to give of one’s time, talents, and resources in service to the larger world is a primary end-product of quality education.
Trinity University and its Board of Trustees embrace commitment to excellence in the moral and spiritual realm as vital to the University’s mission, its present well-being and its long-term good.
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