Chancellor Frenk and EVCP Darnell Hunt shared this message with the Bruin community.
Dear Bruin Community:
For more than 20 years, the True Bruin Values have helped define what it means to be part of the UCLA community. Today, we are launching refreshed values that reflect who we are as a university and how we aspire to show up for one another.
The refreshed True Bruin Values are:
Integrity: Lead with character. We communicate with honesty and transparency, and we make ethical decisions grounded in evidence and a commitment to truth.
Excellence: Strive for greatness. We hold ourselves to high standards in all that we do.
Belonging: Build community. We treat one another with respect, build bridges across differences and work to create a community in which everyone has the opportunity to thrive.
Our values are inseparable from our mission. They guide how we teach and learn, conduct research and scholarship, engage in artistic expression, provide outstanding health care, and serve society. They also guide how we make decisions, communicate across differences and treat one another.
These values are not new to UCLA. They build on a foundation that has been part of our community for two decades. What is new is that we have refreshed and clarified them — through more than two years of engagement with thousands of Bruins. Students, faculty and staff shared their perspectives through surveys, focus groups, Campus Community Conversations, Steering Committee deliberations and Academic Senate consultation. Their thoughtful feedback strengthened the final values.
The values reflect UCLA at its best and who we must strive to become. We will not always get it right, but we should acknowledge where we fall short, learn from those experiences and embrace a spirit of continuous improvement. That means holding ourselves, one another and our institution to a shared standard. For this reason, their launch is a beginning — and not an endpoint. Our values are only as meaningful as the choices and actions behind them. Living them requires sustained effort, and their impact should be visible in UCLA’s decisions, practices, programs, classrooms, laboratories and everyday interactions.
We encourage you to help bring them to life:
- Explore the True Bruin Values website and learn more about how the values were developed.
- Recognize a Bruin who is putting the values into action.
- Read stories about Bruins living the values.
Thank you for helping make Integrity, Excellence and Belonging more than words — and for helping us put them into practice, together.
We are One UCLA.
Julio Frenk
Chancellor
Darnell Hunt
Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost