Institutional Quixotism
An ethic of responsible custodianship in irresponsible times
The Covenant
We are the University.
The heart of a university is its people, not its processes.
We are the temporary custodians of an ancient tradition.
We adapt to the times but we don’t capitulate to them.
We hold scholarship in trust for generations to come.
We tend that which we did not build.
We assert our rights to collegial self-governance.
We fight the foreclosure of our stewardship.
We nurture whimsy as our path to enchantment.
We find joy in meaning, not in metrics.
When you stand, we stand with you.
Solidarity begins with a single supporting voice.
We will not allow silent complicity to be our legacy.
We will bear the cost of speaking up.
The Tilt
We are vigilant sentinels of the horizon.
It is dangerous to see windmills when giants gather.
We know the gears turn fastest when greased by harm.
We are the grit that slows the grind.
We work to blunt the grindstone’s edge.
Hard systems demand soft interpretations.
We won’t be sharpened by the whetstone.
We enact kindness within unkind processes.
We do not retreat when the battle cannot be won.
It matters most that we fought at all.
We will fail and often fall.
And yet we always stand again.
We will not abandon each other to the jaws of the machine.
We are the university, and we have teeth of our own.
