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Purpose and Context
Priorities
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People: The George
Washington University’s highest priority is the safety and well being
of those who live, study, visit, and work within what is referred to as the GW
community. While this community is usually thought of in terms of the
main campus at Foggy Bottom, this priority requires the same attention
anywhere people are under the aegis of the GW logo.
Property: The university’s property collectively constitutes an extraordinarily
important resource. As it is intended to support, directly or indirectly,
the academic mission of the institution, it must be protected and preserved
by any means that do not require our people to assume undue risks to themselves.
While some of our property is quite valuable, it is our property’s
contribution to the university’s mission that establishes its priority.
Vital Interests: Beyond the more quantifiable priorities discussed above,
there are values, rights, processes, and operations that are essential
to the identity, reputation, and sustainability of the university. They
include the idea referred to by some as continuity of operations, but are
conceptually and philosophically far more important. That is, they are
the elements of who we are, how we fulfill our responsibilities to each
other, and the appropriate means to our common goals that make The George
Washington University’s reputation.
These vital interests are most clearly evidenced and demonstrably protected
in our relations with the media. But that is merely the beginning of what
must be done to attend to this priority properly. Our University Relations
staff can state our intentions and describe our actions, but fully protecting
these interests requires that the behaviors we demonstrate to our various
constituencies bring credit to the university and sustain and build our
reputation. These interests include, for example:
- The availability
of web-based information to families who cannot tell what is happening
on campus during an incident so that they may be confident in an up-to-date
and candid report of our situation;
- The proper information
flow to and from those answering phones in the Dean of Students organization
and Parent Services so that they can best support the university and
those who call, in stressful times;
- The sustained
operation of basic functions throughout an incident;
- The selflessness
and self-control of those in positions of responsibility;
- The attention
paid to the special requirements that emerge or require specific action
during an incident; and
- Other qualitative
measures of how we discharge the responsibilities of the university
in times of great stress.
While this list merely is illustrative, and far from exhaustive, it addresses
the more abstract and non-quantifiable matters in which the university’s
interests are real and essential. Prior attention to and justifiable pride
in these matters makes them part of the connotation that attends the definition
of The George Washington University. The routine investment of time, energy,
and attention before the fact makes these issues vital interests of the
university as our behavior reflects the way they are valued and our sense
of ownership. They are matters that, during our normal routine, we would not
step away from without serious deliberation. As such, they should not be
abandoned during an incident absent conscious decisions involving higher
priorities.
To identify the vital interests that you need to protect, ask yourself,
“What are the things you do that:
- Are most important
to the students, faculty, and staff;
- Directly support
GW families, alumni, or community;
- Must be done for
others to do their jobs;
- Care for or empower
others;
- Are the items
that enjoy the highest visibility outside your office, or
- Are the part of
your job that makes you most proud of what you do?”
The manner in which
we deal with these priorities during an incident will be a yardstick by
which the university is measured after the fact. Those who will measure
us include our students, their families, the families of potential future
students, our other constituencies, the media, and–perhaps most importantly–ourselves.
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