READ: FGCU Board of Trustees remove ‘practices’ sustainability from official mission statement, rethinks decision
The FGCU Board of Trustees reinstated the phrase “practices sustainability” back into the mission statement after backlash from the FGCU community.
The mission statement, which originally stated that the university “practices and promotes sustainability,” was changed in September 2015 when the BOT removed the word “practices.”
A student petition, which collected over 120 signatures to get “practices” back in the mission statement, started in Nov. 2015 by FGCU student Brittany Jacobs.
The original draft for the revised mission statement, which was presented to the BOT by Provost Ronald Toll in September, did contain the word “practice,” but the word was pulled out by the BOT in a series of several changes.
At the BOT’s meeting on Jan. 12, former chairwoman Robbie Roepsforff recommended that “practices” be put back in.
“Maybe, it just fell off the radar,” Roepstoff said in the January meeting, “but we used to say ‘promotes and practices,’ and I think that is true to the university. If there’s no opposition from the Board, I’d love to see ‘practices’ put back in there.”
In Tuesday’s meeting, Roespstoff brought up the change, and the change was amended.
Trustee Christian Spilker also recommended that the board remove the word “regional” from the first sentence to clarify that the university serves students from all areas of the world. FGCU President Dr. Wilson Bradshaw told the Board that the revised draft would be brought back at the next meeting.
The BOT will meet again on April 19, 2016.
