Department Policies

Promoting Optimal Aging for Individuals and Communities 

Diversity Statement 

As faculty, staff, and students in VCU's Department of Gerontology in the College of Health Professions:

  • We seek to support personhood by honoring the safety, dignity and well-being of all of our constituents.
  • We believe that diverse backgrounds and philosophies are crucial to academic excellence.
  • We seek to empower an academic community whose members have diverse visions, cultures, backgrounds and life experiences.
  • We honor freedom of expression and civility of discourse as fundamental educational cornerstones
  • We endeavor to foster a just and inclusive campus culture that promotes both cultural competence and cultural humility
  • We aim to engage members of our community as active citizens in a multicultural world.
  • We recognize the need to identify and evaluate they ways in which social, cultural and economic inequities affect power and privilege in the larger society.
  • We consider equity and autonomy central to our mission to promote optimal aging for individuals and communities.

 

Departmental Values 

As faculty, students, and administrative staff of the VCU Department of Gerontology, we will be guided by these Departmental Values in the pursuit of our professional, academic, and community endeavors and as we participate in the Department’s mission to support optimal aging through innovative education for individuals and communities.  We recognize that these Departmental Values are informed by the broader VCU Code of Ethics, and that we need to be mindful of our responsibilities to adhere to both, as well as to any others which may be applicable to us by virtue of our professional affiliations or other obligations.

Professional competence, integrity, professional and scientific responsibility, respect for personhood, rights, dignity, and diversity, social advocacy responsibilities