Principles of Community for WFCB

The objective of these Principles of Community is to set a standard to facilitate all members of WFCB in their professional success, personal well-being, and sense of belonging in our community. These principles apply to each of us, including students, staff, faculty, and department affiliates. We adhere and commit to the UC Davis Principles of Community, which can be found here. In addition, we have adopted principles specific to the WFCB environment. As members of the WFCB community, we commit to:

  1. Recognize, include, and celebrate the diverse backgrounds and identities of all members of our community. Implicit in this recognition is an acknowledgement that some members of our community have had greater access and exposure to the outdoors, natural spaces, education, and science. We value and embrace the broad diversity of life experiences that contribute to WFCB. 

  2. Ensure respect and dignity for all persons regardless of ability, background, or identity and strive to build a shared common purpose among students, staff, researchers, and faculty in WFCB. 

  3. Foster, promote, and maintain a safe, collaborative, and inclusive work environment for all. This includes classrooms, labs, field experiences, committees, and all other WFCB activities and spaces. We explicitly recognize that field-based courses, research, and other outdoor activities are not and have not always been broadly safe environments for all participants. We abide by the notion that building safe work environments for all will benefit both society and the pursuit of wildlife, fish, and conservation science.

  4. Continue to actively listen, learn, develop, and adapt our approaches as students, educators, researchers, and staff to improve the application of these principles, specifically through facilitating feedback and constructive dialog regarding barriers to success in WFCB.

  5. Engage in meaningful actions to address existing inequities1 faced by the WFCB community and the ongoing and ultimate consequences2 of these inequities for active participation in WFCB.

1 including physical, social, economic, geographic and other potential limitations to accessing the outdoors, education, and science
2 e.g. lack of representation, barriers to gaining job experience, impacts on sense of belonging