For centuries, universities have brought together scholars and students to create new knowledge and to engage in teaching and learning. The modern university provides a unique and supportive infrastructure to enable this intellectual activity to occur.
Just as integrity is an indispensable element of our academic enterprise - crucial to the search for truth and knowledge, embodied in the acknowledgment of the original work of others, the respect we show intellectual property, and ethical standards that guide our research - so must it also be an indispensable part of the operations we have established to support that enterprise.
In establishing a compliance line, we are reaffirming that commitment, and providing a new tool to ensure it. We have numerous mechanisms to enable individuals to share grievances or report improprieties; however, there may be some instances in which a member of our community has other reasons for being reluctant using those avenues. For those individuals, this compliance line - which will permits callers to remain anonymous should they so choose - will, I hope, encourage them to step forward in good faith without fear of reprisal to correct something they believe may be improper. In so doing, they contribute to making NYU a better, stronger place, for which we all are grateful.
