Syracuse University has circulated plans for an office where community members could confidentially voice concerns since last year, but some are frustrated the university has not moved forward with the proposal faster.

In spring 2016, the University Senate’s Committee on Women’s Concerns introduced a plan to establish an Office of the Ombuds.

An Ombuds Office is a resource for students, staff and faculty to help resolve conflicts, concerns or issues that may arise in academic or professional workplaces. An ombudsperson is required to be confidential, impartial, independent and informal.

Currently, SU students can get conflict resolution help at the Office of Student Assistance, the Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities and the Student Grievance Processes. They can also speak to professors or members of administration.

However, none of those resources fulfill the four criteria required for an Ombuds Office.

The current conflict resolution resources are part of the university’s organizational structure so they can’t satisfy the impartiality requirement, said Jack Wilson, president of SU’s Graduate Student Organization.

“Currently, as it is, the university doesn’t have any system or process in place to provide people a confidential and informal way of addressing grievances,” Wilson said.

Because discussions with an ombudsperson are required to be confidential, individuals’ information won’t be given to the Office of the Provost. An ombudsperson can also provide counseling and resources for both parties involved in the conflict.

The proposal was a multi-year project that included research and Q&A sessions with different ombuds programs, said Lori Brown, professor at the School of Architecture and a member of the committee.

Brown said the proposal was well-received by USen. SU Chancellor Kent Syverud was also present at the meeting.

The creation of an Ombuds Office is part of advancing diversity and inclusion at SU. The Office of the Provost made an initial recommendation in fall 2016. Evaluation of the recommendation took place throughout spring and summer 2017. Final recommendations were submitted on June 30, according to a Syracuse University news release.

Syverud delegated the task of working on an Ombuds Office to LaVonda Reed, associate provost of faculty affairs and a professor at the College of Law.

The proposal was approved in March 2016, said Margaret Thompson, associate professor of history and political science and a former member of the USen Committee on Women’s Concerns.

“It’s frustrating because we’ve met with Ms. Reed a few times, and it’s still not clear if anything is happening,” Thompson said.

An Ombuds Office is important at a university with SU’s size and complexity, Brown said.

Many of SU’s peer institutions have Ombuds Offices with varying degrees of success, she added.

Brown and Thompson said faculty and staff would come to the Women’s Concerns Committee if they were involved in work- or gender-related conflicts.

People didn’t know where to report issues, especially if conflicts crossed jurisdictional lines, Thompson said.

Members of the Committee on Women’s Concerns volunteer as part of an obligation to the university, but there are professionals who are better suited to handle the work-related conflicts, she added.

“We heard over and over again that people felt that they had nowhere to go within the institution for support and advocacy,” Brown said.

During summer 2017, the Women’s Concerns Committee contacted Reed about an annual conference hosted by the United States Ombudsman Association in October, Thompson said.

The committee wanted to see if someone from SU would attend the conference to talk to other universities and observe “the state of the art” of Ombuds Offices, Thompson added, but there was no progress.

Thompson said because Reed is likely overloaded with work on accreditation and academic plans, something like that could get buried. But she said she is hopeful the office will be established soon.

“We are intrigued by the idea of having an Office of the Ombuds, and as such are deep in the process of studying and considering this idea,” Reed said in an email. “We are having good conversations with key constituencies about this concept and appreciate all of the feedback and input we’ve received to date.”

“I think (an Ombuds Office) should already have happened,” Brown said. “I think there should be one here.”

Published on September 18, 2017 at 11:10 pm

Contact Sandhya: ssiyer@syr.edu