Ever-Changing Higher Ed Leads to Update of CUPA-HR’s Strategic Priorities, Values and Code of Ethics

CUPA-HR’s strategic priorities were last updated in 2011, and our values and ethics statements were last updated over a decade ago. With the ever-changing needs in today’s complex higher education landscape, it is important to periodically review our priorities, our values, and the ethics that guide our work to ensure their relevance and their impact.

During its December 2016 and April 2017 meetings, the association’s board of directors spent several hours assessing what business we are in and what makes CUPA-HR unique and special. The board also compared these outcomes to our stated priorities, values and ethics. The results from these discussions were then shared with over 200 national, regional and chapter leaders at the Association Leadership Program (ALP) in July 2017. Our leaders engaged in great, lively dialogue and provided outstanding feedback that the national office and the board used to update the association’s priorities, values and ethics that guide our work.

Our priorities have been streamlined from six to four, but our key work has not changed. Multiyear plans associated with the priorities, as well as key actions and anticipated outcomes for this year, continue to drive us forward. We have made a tremendous impact on higher ed and higher ed HR by focusing on our strategic priorities. That tremendous impact and our progress will most definitely continue!

Based on feedback we received, we made significant changes to our stated values and the behaviors (ethics) that define how we approach our work. We could have included a laundry list of values and another laundry list to define our ethical behaviors to support our values, but our discussions clearly pointed us to four values and five key behaviors. I’m particularly pleased that our first stated value is “community and belonging.” We are more of a community than an association because of the ways that our members engage with one another to learn and share resources.

Thanks to board chair Donna Popovich of University of Tampa, our national board of directors, our region boards and everyone else who helped create these very important updates. Your work, and your leadership, are very much appreciated!