Dear Colleagues:

More than four years ago, the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) began a strategic planning process, a process that invited input from faculty, staff, students, partners, and the communities we serve. As the plan was developed and refined, participants noticed that they repeatedly came across the same values underpinning the University’s work and its goals.

These seven values became our core values — the ideals we must uphold if we are to fulfill our institutional mission. 

• Accountability: The University is committed to being responsible and transparent.
• Civility: The University expects interactions to be professional, ethical, respectful, and courteous.
• Collaboration: The University promotes teamwork that fosters insightful and excellent solutions and advancement.
• Diversity: The University is committed to a culture that is enriched by diversity and inclusion, in the broadest sense, in its thoughts, actions, and leadership.
• Excellence: The University is guided by a constant pursuit of excellence.
• Knowledge: The University’s industry is to create, disseminate, and apply knowledge.
• Leadership: The University continuously strives to be a leader and to develop leaders.

In recent months, you’ve probably seen these values around the UMB campus, as we incorporate them into our signage and publications and display them on UMB vehicles. Some departments — including URecFit, Parking Services, and Communications and Public Affairs — have adapted the University’s core values to guide their own responsibilities. It’s a wonderful affirmation of the values’ resonance within the UMB community.

I hope all of us will commit to living these core values. I hope we’ll let them influence how we approach our work, how we contribute to society, and how we lead as an institution. And I ask that you download our Core Values poster and hang it in your workspace as a reminder of our commitment to these fundamental ideals.

To encourage deeper reflection and dialogue on our core values, we’ve introduced the Core Values Speaker Series. Our inaugural keynoter is Ron Shapiro, best-selling author, attorney, sports agent, and civic leader. He’ll discuss civility on March 30 at noon in the SMC Campus Center, and I hope to see you there — RSVP today.

In the months ahead, we’ll share more about what these values mean to UMB and how they might shape our daily work. I thank you for your dedication to the University and to the values we hold so dear.

Sincerely,

Jay A. Perman, MD
President