We are employees from all sectors of the university who have come together to create a more cohesive and productive work environment through teamwork.

Goals & Objectives

Recognizing that New School University's primary's mission is to be an educational institution, with recently articulated goals of "(1) providing the space for connections to be made among the arts, design, and the social sciences; (2) providing a common education for undergraduates; and (3) developing the competence necessary to educate everyone who wants to be educated," our job as university management is to create and implement systems that will allow the academic mission to be achieved. To this end, we are obligated to recognize those examples of administrative achievement that clearly warrant replication and that bear lessons for similar activities.

While there are clear differences and needs among the faculty and staff, there are also processes and procedures in use which are duplicated among individuals, committees, departments and divisions. Many of these processes have developed into successful models. Although we will not be able to find a complete set of models to fit every purpose and every group, we can take advantage of successful initiatives that have come to fruition and have benefited others. We can use these models to give us ideas on how to tackle problems that may exist within our setting and to promote an efficient, respectful, creative and enjoyable work environment. The UTI effort began with the clear purpose of highlighting a few of these successes, sharing them with the university community, and making some choices among these successes for future action.

To get us to this point, we will need to accomplish the following objectives:

• Identify good team models
  
• Gather information on those models
  
• Assess the information
  
• Communicate our findings and recommendations to the University community
  
• Build the support and buy-in of the University community and administrators necessary to enable implementation of our ideas and findings
  

By then implementing these modes, we will then be able to:

• Create alliances that will promote teamwork and cooperation
  
• Improve communication on all levels
  
• Help people to feel their contribution is of value

Contact Us

Tell us about your team
Want to brag – or connect – to someone about your team or a team member? Or simply want to give us ideas or suggestions. We're here to listen. Contact University Team Initiative.