During the University’s staff town halls on Oct. 29 and 30, the University’s vice president for human resources, Heather Christophersen, announced a new set of “ND Values.” The previous list included a value that called for staff acceptance and support of the University’s Catholic mission, which was absent in the new list.
These organizational principles are geared towards the University’s roughly 4,500 staff members, such as those working in administration, communications, facilities, dining services, financial management and residential life, among other areas. They do not generally apply to faculty.
In an interview with The Observer, Christophersen explained that the values are meant to drive staff’s mission. They are implemented through presidential awards, the highlighting of each value in publications, and are also used to evaluate staff during performance reviews.
The new values were described in the news release as “an expression of how we seek to advance Notre Dame’s mission as a global, Catholic research university.”
In materials released alongside the announcement, the list was prefaced with the statement, “In all that we do, we seek to advance Notre Dame's mission as a global Catholic research university to be a force for good in the world.”
The values and their accompanying descriptions are:
- Community: Treat every person with dignity and respect
- Collaboration: Work together with honesty, kindness, and humility
- Excellence: Pursue the highest standards with a commitment to truth and service
- Innovation: Embrace opportunities with creativity and dedication
These values replace a previous set of values, which had been in place since their creation by then University President Fr. John Jenkins some 20 years ago, Christophersen shared.
The five former values were:
- Accountability: Takes responsibility and ownership for decisions, actions and results. Accountable for both how and what is accomplished
- Teamwork: Works Cooperatively as a member of a team and is committed to the overall team objectives rather than own interests
- Integrity: Demonstrates honest and ethical behavior that displays a high moral standard. Widely trusted, respectful and honorable
- Leadership in Excellence: Demonstrates energy and commitment to improving results, takes initiatives often involving calculated risks while considering the common good
- Leadership in Mission: Understands, accepts and supports the Catholic mission of the university and fosters values consistent with that mission.
In an email to staff announcing the new values, Christophersen wrote, “At Notre Dame, our values are more than words—they are the foundation of our community and the guiding principles that shape how we work, interact, and contribute to a purpose greater than ourselves. These values reflect who we are and who we aspire to be.”
She continued, “By embracing these values, we reaffirm our commitment to one another and to the University’s mission. Thank you for the work you do every day to make Notre Dame a place of care, respect, and excellence.”
In an interview, Christophersen explained that the former values were determined to be too generic rather than distinct to Notre Dame.
“They could be values anywhere. They could be a value at Northwestern or Duke or Stanford, or they could be in the corporate world,” Christophersen said.
“You know, the words like integrity and teamwork and accountability, they’re great words, but they didn't feel Notre Dame,” she added. “We thought it was an opportunity to refresh them and to make these [values] feel more connected to Notre Dame.” She said she had received feedback that the previous values were “stale.”
Christophersen shared that Jenkins first implemented staff values because he deemed it important that the University articulate values to guide staff culture and how staff work together.
Once Fr. Robert Dowd became president, Christophersen said he expressed his desire to update these values in one of his first meetings with her as leader of the University.
She shared that for the past year and a half, her team has been working to develop these new values with input from focus groups, University leaders and staff.
Christophersen said that the key themes of these focus groups were kindness, humility and a commitment to service and truth, characteristics she believes speaks to the University’s mission at large.
The new values, she said, “might not say specific mission-related words, but I think trying to weave them throughout was our goal.”
Christophersen said the decision to remove the value “Leadership in Mission” came in an attempt to make the Catholic mission an overarching theme, instead of a single value.
“Fr. Bob and I talked a lot about this, that the previous values had the one value that pointed into mission,” she said.
She described the Catholic mission as an umbrella, saying, “It’s in everything we do. We strive to be the best global Catholic research institution, to be a force for good. So that kind of phrase frames these values.”
Additionally, she said the previous value that emphasized staff’s acceptance and support for the University’s Catholic mission “often caused confusion of what that really means, and what these [new values] are trying to do is have all of them reflect the mission.”
Christophersen said the University does not track religious affiliation for staff as they do for faculty and students.
She specifically referenced the difficulty of evaluating staff on their adherence to the value of “Leadership in Mission” in annual performance reviews as a reason for the change.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to clarify which quotes by Christophersen were shared via email and which were shared in an interview.
