Campus & Community

Office of the University Ombuds Releases Annual Report

Friday, November 12, 2021, By Ellen de Graffenreid

The has released its , covering the period from July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021.

The ombuds is an informal, confidential, impartial and independent resource for faculty, staff and graduate students. The ombuds is meant to be a place employees and graduate students can go, outside of formal channels like Human Resources, the Office of Equal Opportunity Inclusion & Resolution Services, the Office of University Counsel or Risk Management, to address concerns or questions without fear of retaliation or judgment.

The ombuds operates on the principles of confidentiality (to the extent permitted by law), independence, impartiality and neutrality and informality.

The ombuds provides reports to University leadership on general trends and patterns of complaints without breaching confidentiality so that problems can more effectively be prevented from escalating or recurring.  The annual report provides a general summary of trends for the period of the report and summary statistics about users of the ombuds office, common categories of concerns and the nature of the concerns.