— UI Operations Manual I.2.1(3)a.

As members of the university community, each of us is responsible for creating an environment where faculty, staff, and students can learn, work, discover, create, and thrive. This requires:

• Treating all UI community members and visitors with respect
• Modeling ethical behavior and business practices every day, in every aspect of our work
• Embracing the commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion that is fundamental to our mission

The university expects all faculty, staff, and students to meet standards of behavior grounded in UI values, including commitment to academic freedom and free speech. An academic institution has a duty to provide a forum in which differences of opinion are actively encouraged and facilitated, and where opinions and deeply held beliefs are challenged and debated.

UI Core Values

The following values guide our community:

• Community: We recognize that people make our institution what it is. We are committed to fostering an open and welcoming environment where all can collaborate and support each other.
• Diversity: We achieve excellence through recruiting, retaining, and advancing a diverse community; building an inclusive and accessible campus where each of our unique social identities are valued, and ensuring our policies and practices are equitable and eliminate disparities.
• Excellence: We are committed to the highest quality of education, research and discovery, and service and outreach. We expect the best effort from ourselves and colleagues in all that we do, and continually seek to improve.
• Integrity: We understand the importance of doing what is right, even when it is not easy or popular. We strive to align our words and our actions, and value the highest academic, personal, and professional ethical standards.
• Learning: We believe learning permeates all that we do.Growth and development are essential to university life regardless of role, responsibility, or discipline.
• Respect: We recognize the innate value of each individual. We treat people in a way that acknowledges their perspectives and experiences, fostering trust and understanding.
• Responsibility: We strive to be dependable, trustworthy, and accountable. Through our words and actions, we endeavor to be faithful stewards of the legacies and resources entrusted to us.

University of Iowa Health Care defines its core values as welcoming, excellence, collaboration, accountability, respect and equity.

Find more information about the university’s mission and values in the Operations Manual.

Key Policies

University policies underscore the expectation for respectful, fair, and ethical behavior by all community members. Updated regularly, the university’s Operations Manual is the best source for policy information.

Understanding and adhering to the following policies will provide a foundation for your success at the UI:

Human Rights: Prohibits differences in treatment based on protected classifications and establishes options for discrimination complaints, sanctions, and appeals.

Sexual Harassment: Prohibits unwelcome behavior of a sexual nature in the workplace and in the academic environment, and establishes procedures for reporting harassment and resolving allegations.

Anti-Harassment: Prohibits severe, persistent, or pervasive conduct that interferes with work, education, on-campus living, or participation in university activities. Establishes formal and informal complaint, investigation, and disciplinary options.

Violence: Prohibits acts and threats of violence, including physical or sexual assault, threats of assault, threats with a weapon, domestic/dating violence, stalking, property damage, and violent conduct prohibited by Iowa law.

Anti-Retaliation: Protects people who make good-faith reports of university-related misconduct from retaliatory action.

Ethics and Responsibilities for UI Staff: Establishes ethical standards for staff members, including professional conduct, fairness, civility, compliance, information and data management, and stewardship.

Professional Ethics and Academic Responsibilities: Describes faculty responsibilities to students, scholarship, colleagues, the institution, and the community.

Conflicts of Commitment and Interest: Provides expectations and procedures to ensure that conflicts of interest (financial) and commitment (effort) are avoided whenever possible, or otherwise disclosed and managed.

Conflict of Interest in Employment (Nepotism): Defines workplace conflicts of interest due to personal relationships between individuals in a supervisory relationship and establishes the process for disclosure and management of such situations.

Contact your HR representative or your supervisor for more information about any university, collegiate, or departmental policy.