{"id":55765,"date":"2011-08-17T16:04:12","date_gmt":"2011-08-17T21:04:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=55765"},"modified":"2012-03-06T10:51:34","modified_gmt":"2012-03-06T15:51:34","slug":"supporting-civility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/08\/supporting-civility\/","title":{"rendered":"Supporting Civility"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Jeremy<\/a>
Jeremy Teitelbaum, dean of CLAS.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

A couple of weeks ago, President Herbst<\/a> announced the publication of a revised code of conduct<\/a> for the university, calling our attention to newly adopted civility standards. Under the civility heading, the code states that \u201call members of the University community have a responsibility to treat each other with consideration and respect.\u201d More significant from my point of view, though, is the statement that \u201cManagers and supervisors have an elevated responsibility to demonstrate these behaviors and support their expression in the workplace.\u201d<\/p>\n

After all, it\u2019s not really asking very much to require all of us to treat each other with \u201cconsideration and respect.\u201d Although, in my younger days, I was a little too quick to resort to nasty sarcasm with people I disagreed with, I\u2019ve since mellowed and (mostly) I practice self-control.<\/p>\n

The requirement to support civil behavior in the workplace is much harder to carry out. Nothing involving interactions among people is ever straightforward, and the university leadership should not be policing day-to-day interactions among colleagues. At the same time, even in situations where people are clearly out of line, it\u2019s all too easy to look the other way rather than confront them about their bad behavior. And, of course, changing some people\u2019s \u00a0behavior for the better can be nearly impossible.<\/p>\n

My biggest concern, though, is that because of \u00a0my position in a hierarchy, and the privileges I enjoy, I never find out about problems in the first place.<\/p>\n

You see, my life as a dean is pretty nice. Talented staff people handle all kinds of routine things \u2013 like paperwork \u2013 that used to eat up my time when I was a faculty member. When I show up at a lecture or other event, people tell me how glad they are to see me. They compliment any remarks I make, no matter how perfunctory. When I provide funding for a piece of equipment, or for an adjunct instructor, or some other project, the recipient thanks me for my support. Often, even when I turn down a request, I get thanked just for considering it!<\/p>\n

The bottom line is that people all around me are constantly treating me with \u201cconsideration and respect.\u201d It would be all too easy for me to conclude that because my situation is so pleasant, so is everyone else\u2019s.<\/p>\n

But CLAS is a very big organization, and my position is unique. It would be naive \u2013 and irresponsible \u2013 for me to generalize from my experience to that of others. What makes the obligation to support civility weigh on me is the fact that, if I\u2019m going to \u201csupport\u201d consideration and respect across the college, I need to reach out beyond my zone of comfort. I need to talk to people \u2013 lots of people, listen to what they have to say, and try to piece together as much of the true state of affairs as I can. Of particular importance is the fact that I need to account for the fact that people will be reluctant to volunteer unpleasant information to me.<\/p>\n

What weighs most heavily, though, is the fact that I am accountable not only for my own behavior, but ultimately for the behavior of everyone in the college who holds a position of authority \u2013 whether formal authority derived from a position in the hierarchy, or informal authority like that wielded by every faculty member who teaches, interacts with staff, or advises graduate students. Everyone in such a position \u2013 every faculty member and every senior staff person, everyone who wields some kind of power \u2013 faces some form of the difficulties that I face in finding out what\u2019s really going on around them. They, too, need to reach out, to listen to what\u2019s going on around them, and to act where necessary to uphold \u201cconsideration and respect\u201d among members of the university community.<\/p>\n

To be honest, this accountability is the scariest part of my job. I would rather deal with any number of budget crises than try to intervene in situations where \u201cconsideration and respect\u201d seem to have broken down. Still, I believe that nothing promotes more cynicism, nothing undermines productivity more quickly, nothing undermines recruitment and retention of talented people more thoroughly than a lack of trust by the students, staff, and faculty of the University in the commitment of its leadership to a decent working environment. So even though budgetary problems are more pleasant to deal with than flawed personal interactions, the responsibility of those in power to promote a favorable workplace climate is at the foundation of the university\u2019s success. \u00a0I hope we can live up to the responsibility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A couple of weeks ago, President Herbst announced the publication of a revised code of conduct for the university, calling our attention to newly adopted civility standards. Under the civility heading, the code states that \u201call members of the University community have a responsibility to treat each other with consideration and respect.\u201d More significant from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[66],"class_list":["post-55765","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-11 14:02:43","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55765","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55765"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55765\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":56029,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55765\/revisions\/56029"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55765"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55765"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55765"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=55765"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=55765"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}