Living Our Values
Dear Boston University Community Members,
Boston University is a big, complex community that welcomes people from across the country and around the world. Though we have different backgrounds, perspectives, and beliefs, as members of this community, we share an identity and strive to create an institution where everyone can belong. Last fall, we launched the Living Our Values Initiative to identify the core principles that existed at our founding, have carried us to the present, and can guide us into the future.
Over the past year, faculty, staff, students, and alumni contributed their thoughts and ideas to the initiative, with thousands of you participating through focus groups, surveys, and committees. Today, I am pleased to share the results. Your valuable input has culminated in eight shared values: Integrity, Inclusion, Community, Collaboration, Excellence, Learning, Service, and Global. The Living Our Values website includes descriptions of each value, written by the steering committee and based on your input.
Thank you to Kimberly Howard, professor of counseling psychology & applied human development at BU Wheelock College of Education & Human Development, and Sue Kennedy, associate vice president for Strategy & Innovation, for leading the initiative. And thank you to the steering committee members for their efforts in leading our community through this process.
Boston University is a distinctive place. Since our founding, we have been open to all people, even when that was not customary at the time. This commitment to openness and the pursuit of academic rigor have allowed us to flourish despite setbacks. Today, our community is large, diverse, and complex. We share a commitment to crossing disciplinary boundaries and the borders of our campus to impact the world around us. As our alumnus the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., said, “We must rise above the narrow confines of our individualistic concerns, to the broader concerns of all humanity.”
I look forward to observing and practicing the many ways in which all of us will live out these eight values, in our own way and in service to one another and to the world around us. I hope that they will inspire you. And while we will not always live up to them, let us strive to do so.
Thank you again to all of you who have worked hard on getting us to this moment. Selecting values is an important milestone. It is also a starting point. In the coming weeks, we will share opportunities to engage the values as a community, and we welcome your ideas.
Sincerely,
Melissa Gilliam
President
*10/15/25 This message was sent to students, faculty, and staff.