Boston University President Launches The Living Our Values Project

Boston University President Melissa Gilliam has written to the university community and announced the launch of "The Living Our Values Project.

Study in US: During her inauguration speech, Boston University President Melissa Gilliam announced a new initiative “Creating a community in which each of us can fully contribute to the life of this campus requires each of us to commit to regarding one another with dignity and respect.”

She said that it will focus on “living our values and building our skills in discourse,” while also “deepening our commitment to free expression.”

"In a letter to the BU community, President Melissa Gilliam announced the launch of "The Living Our Values Project," an initiative to foster a community rooted in dignity, respect, and free expression," reads the message by Boston University on X platform.

 

Two BU faculties will lead this initiative

Two faculty members will lead this project. Suzanne Kennedy, associate provost for special projects and emerging priorities and Kimberly Howard, a professor of counselling psychology and applied human development at Wheelock College of Education & Human Development will lead the project.

“The Living Our Values project is important for BU because it will allow us to develop a shared understanding of the values that guide our work in the classroom, the lab, and across campus. It will provide a common language for our expectations of ourselves and one another that can facilitate honest, respectful dialogue about points around which we agree and disagree," said Howard.

“An exciting Presidential Initiative, the Living Our Values Project will ultimately reflect the voices of faculty, staff, and students on all campuses. We are beginning this work with a strength of mission and tradition, and the project will allow us to be reflective of this foundation and of where we want to go as an institution,” Kennedy added.

In a letter to the BU community, Gilliam said that her aim is to “transform Boston University into an even better version of itself.”

"Awareness that many members of our campus community are experiencing pain and sadness related to global conflict and personal loss. In such time, there is a tendency to distrust people who are different than us and to shut down speech and viewpoints that we find difficult or contrary to our own," she wrote.

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