Code of Ethics

Baylor University is entrusted by students, parents, alumni, donors, and others with great resources and commensurately great responsibilities for creation, dissemination, and preservation of knowledge. Baylor’s Financial Services’ staff members play a key role in assuring that high standards of ethical practice attend to the custody and use of these resources. The staff member’s personal and professional conduct reflects on Baylor, the collective professional, and the higher education at large. To assure high standards of ethical conduct, Baylor’s Financial Services Office has adopted the following Code of Ethics and embraces the values expressed in this Code and advocates their observance by its staff members.

The staff member’s conduct should be characterized by the utmost integrity and dignity, and he or she should expect and encourage such conduct by others.

The staff member should adopt and be faithful to personal values that:

• accord respect to self and others;
• preserve honesty in all actions and communications;
• give fair and just treatment to all;
• accept intellectual and moral responsibility;
• aspire to achieve excellence;
• refuse conflict, or the appearance of conflict, between personal and University interests;
• foster communication with peers and professional organizations for the purpose of promoting best business practices;
• engender forthright expression of one’s own views and tolerance for the views of others; and
• honor and support the Christian heritage and mission of Baylor University.

The staff member should act with competence and should strive to advance competence, both in self and in others.

The staff member should understand and support Baylor’s objectives and policies, should be capable of interpreting them within and beyond the institution, and should contribute constructively to their ongoing evaluation and reformulation.

The staff member should communicate to colleagues the content of this Code of Ethics and should strive to ensure that the standards of professional conduct contained herein are met.

In discharging his or her duties in accordance with this Code of Ethics, the Baylor Financial Services staff member should enjoy the following rights:

• the right to work in a professional, caring, and Christian environment;
• the right to have a clear, written statement of the conditions of his or her employment, a written job description, and procedures for professional review;
• within the scope of his or her authority and policy, the right to exercise judgment and perform duties with out disruption or harassment; and
• freedom of conscience and the right to refuse to engage in actions that violate the ethical principles contained in this Code or provisions of law.

And whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father. Colossians 3:17

Adapted from the Code of Ethics adopted by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) Board of Directors on April 15, 1993.