The 2010 – 2013 Virginia Tech Diversity Strategic Plan reaffirms the university’s institutional commitment to growing and sustaining a diverse and inclusive learning, living, and working environment. The university strives to be a 21st century learning community defined by excellence through the affirmation of differences in the composition of Virginia Tech’s leadership, faculty, staff, and students; the configuration of its policies, procedures, organizational structures, curricula, and co-curricular programs; and the fabric of its interpersonal relationships. This diversity strategic plan expresses a framework for enacting the university’s larger mission and for its values. The plan is shaped by Virginia Tech’s core values: freedom of inquiry, mutual respect, lifelong learning, a commitment to diverse and inclusive communities, Ut Prosim (That I May Serve), personal and institutional integrity, and a culture of continuous improvement. The plan outlined here is aligned with the university’s goals articulated in the 2006-2012 University Strategic Plan in which Virginia Tech vows
[to] transform itself as a 21st century university capable of responding effectively to opportunities presented in a dynamic and diverse domestic and global environment…; [to a] high quality and diverse student body, faculty, and staff who contribute to the robust exchange of ideas…; [to] building multicultural and international competencies…; [and to fostering] a diverse and inclusive community that supports mutual respect [and] an organizational culture that nurtures the next generation of leadership, enhances diversity, and sustains a positive momentum geared to a successful future.
Fundamental to the priorities outlined in this plan are Virginia Tech’s Principles of Community, adopted in 2005 in the midst of a decade of progress associated with advancing a diverse and inclusive learning, living, and working environment (see “A Decade of Progress and Challenge” at the end of this document). In the Virginia Tech Principles of Community, the university affirms its commitment
[to] increase access and inclusion; to create a community that nurtures learning and growth for all of its members; [to the] value of human diversity; and to take individual and collective responsibility for helping to eliminate bias and discrimination and for increasing our own understanding of these issues through education, training, and interaction with others.