The Ombuds team will
- Listen carefully to understand issues of concern from the student’s perspective.
- Discuss relevant school or University policies and procedures.
- Help students identify available options to undertake moving forward.
- Help to illuminate the likely interests of other involved parties to assist students in framing their concerns productively.
- Help students to develop the skills and confidence to raise their concerns directly with relevant parties, and offer other appropriate guidance.
- Provide informal mediation support.
- Bring urgent concerns to the Dean while maintaining student anonymity.
- Partner with relevant University resources to develop or advance initiatives to prevent problems and enhance professionalism across the school.
- Report general trends to the Dean.
- Assist in bringing systemic issues to the attention of appropriate decision-makers within the school or University as a whole.
- Advocate for full and equitable treatment of student concerns.
Members of the team will NOT
- Take sides.
- Act in a way that would compromise their neutrality. (Should an issue arise in which a team member’s neutrality could be questioned, they will recuse themselves from working with that student.)
- Participate in formal investigations or resolution processes.
- Make binding decisions or create policies.
- Keep records or provide detailed reports beyond general trends.