Memorial Union Staff
Guiding Principles
Developed August 2007

Nationally Recognized Union: A nationally recognized Student Union starts from within.  This means that we are following the mission and campus themes of NDSU.  Service to others, students are paramount, and diversity are but a few we adhere to in our work.  On a national level, being nationally recognized means three things:

1)    Our work will constantly be focused on raising the bar to better serve students, intentionally developing outcome based programs and becoming experts in our area
2)    We will become a clearinghouse of information in terms of team training, team development, service learning/civic engagement, Greek Life, Operational systems, Leadership training, Recreational programs, Service & Hospitality, Campus Programming, Marketing and more!
3)     Professionals will want to come to Fargo just for the experience of working here with our team because they have heard how well we collaborate, demand self-accountability, and develop such high quality services and programs;

To help guide us along the way:

Principle I: Work Focus                       

•    Feedback based culture

o    Utilizes results & outcomes focus during the assessment process
o    Asks several peers/students in and outside the Union for feedback

•    Team, collaboration & open communication

o    Collaborate in and outside of the union on programs/services
o    As a team, work to better relationships that may be suffering (what we do for us, we mirror in how we work with students!)
o    Advocate for each other, don’t speak negatively about others (help each other to grow-like we do for students and friends).

•    Positive conflict

o    It is okay to disagree.  A decision will be made by the person responsible for that area. Trust and support each other!
o    Check perceptions before creating judgments (life is more enjoyable!)
o    Be okay with putting yourself out there-be vulnerable in order to create trust

•    Self-accountability

o    Stop blaming and help.  Stop judging and lend a hand. Come up with suggestions
o    Self-validate yourself by setting and accomplishing your own goalso    Contribute, collaborate, and commend “everyone” for their work (not just friends)

•    Become an expert in your area

o    Read books, articles, take classes, present at conferences-focus on development
o    Communicate and share your expertise on our new “NDSU Clearinghouse” website

•    Raise the Bar

o    Don’t create more work, just do it even better than before. Evaluate, improve, and evaluate again. Focus on outcomes

•    Remember FOCUS and challenge your students and each other to increase our level of service and hospitality

Principle II: Values

•    Relationships   
•    Quality (programs/services)
•    Balance life and work
•    Diversity
•    Respect and supporting each other
•    Student Focused
•    Trust and confidence in each other

Principle III: The supervisory atmosphere will focus on the following in order to provide high quality leadership

•    Reward calculated mistakes and initiative
•    Focus on outcomes and results
•    Coach to be the best and to raise the bar
•    Challenge personal and professional growth
•    Recognize the results
•    Push advanced planning and collaboration
•    Encourage staff to prevent wedging and back talk (work to encourage staff to break down mental models and check perceptions)

How will we enact the above?   
We will tie the above principles to how we evaluate each other in our performance reviews as well as during conversations that focus on collaborative efforts and relationships in order to better hold ourselves to a higher standard of self-accountability.