The Culture Journey began with a group of passionate faculty, staff, and students who came together with the goal of bettering the USC experience for everyone. A brief history:
- In August 2017- December 2018, the Task Force on Workforce Standards and Employee Wellness consisting of faculty, staff, and students focused on understanding root issues behind concerns being raised in the media. Their final report assessed four areas of culture: leadership, concerns, wellness, and values (as well as some items that cut across units and schools).
- The focus on fostering wellness led to the formation of the President’s Culture Commission (the “PCC”) under Interim President Wanda Austin, and the creation of the Working Group on University Culture (the “Working Group”) to effectuate change as part of the overall strategy for culture cultivation and development.
- A second recommendation from the Task Force was to start the process of looking at the University’s core values, through a “Culture Values Assessment.” That CVA has evolved over time into the “Values Poll” that will launch in October.
- The Working Group has had a diverse group of 21 members of faculty and staff from the University Park Campus (“UPC”) and Health Sciences Campus (“HSC”), led by several Co-Chairs representing Faculty, Staff and Students, since January 2019. An initial area of focus has been contributing ideas around strategy, specifically related to the Values Poll (demographics questions), Communications and Engagement with the USC-Community, and Culture Facilitators and Culture Advocates who will be the “Culture Network” supporting the Culture Sessions (e.g. Town Halls and Discussion Sessions) in 2020.