The Ombuds Service at SIUE provides impartial, confidential and informal resolution of disputes for faculty members and administrators. The program seeks to help those faculty or administrators with interpersonal misunderstandings as well as those concerned with more administrative or academic issues. These misunderstandings may be between two or more faculty members or between a faculty member and an administrator. The main purpose of the Ombuds Service is to mediate conflict. It will not serve to adjudicate breaches in formal administrative policies (a formal grievance procedure is in place for this purpose). As a result, the Ombuds faculty will listen, offer options and facilitate resolution to those in conflict. This will be done without preference to one party over another. Rather, the goal of the Ombuds faculty will be to mediate disputes and ensure that all party's voices are heard.
The assumptions for the Ombuds Service are as follows:
1) To recognize that conflict is an inevitable part of organizational life.
2) To recognize that conflict can harm organizational unity when it is silenced, ignored, or denied.
3) To ensure, through the services of a trained Ombuds faculty, that when conflict arises all parties, regardless of position, have an avenue for dealing with conflict.
Given that the Ombuds Service provides informal conflict resolution, any faculty member wishing to file a formal complaint must do so within the 90-day time frame outlined in the University's grievance policy. Using the Ombuds Service, however, does not forfeit the faculty member's right to pursue a formal grievance process. Questions regarding formal grievance procedures will be referred by the Ombuds to the Chair of the Welfare Council. Once a grievance has been filed, the Ombuds will not be involved in the formal grievance procedure.
The SIUE Ombuds Service will attempt to seek informal conflict resolution between those who teach on the SIUE campuses including full-time and part-time faculty and administrators. In those instances where one or more of the individuals involved are represented under a collective bargaining agreement, ombuds services can only be provided if they do not present a violation to the covering agreement.
Only tenured faculty can serve as an Ombuds-person.
The Ombuds faculty will spend time disseminating information about their services to the faculty. This will be done by visiting departments and going to new faculty orientation. The Ombuds faculty will also establish and maintain a web-page that will inform the faculty about its services.
Included in the information disseminated to faculty will be a list of activities that Ombuds faculty can do or not do. These include:
Ombuds faculty do
Provide confidentiality to all clients who seek their services
Listen and discuss issues
Seek answers to questions or help find others who can
Explain University policy and procedure
Help evaluate options
Facilitate communication between people
Mediate disputes to seek a “win-win” resolution of problems
Make appropriate referrals when informal options do not work
Discuss formal options that are available
Discuss patterns of problems/complaints to administrators and the Welfare Council
Ombuds faculty may agree to appear as a witness for a grievance case in their capacity as faculty, not Ombuds, and for which they share information or knowledge that has no relation to their Ombuds function.
Ombuds faculty DO NOT
Make administrative decisions
Determine guilt or innocence
Assign sanctions to people
Participate in formal grievance procedures in their capacity as Ombuds
Serve on grievance panels during or up to three years after their term ends
There will be two Ombuds faculty, for the purpose of ensuring impartiality. Each Ombuds faculty will serve a term of three years, and is eligible for reappointment to a second consecutive three-year term, after which a new Ombuds will be appointed. The two Ombuds faculty will serve staggered terms, beginning and ending their appointments in different years. If the staggered pattern of terms of appointment becomes disrupted, the Chair of the Welfare Council, in consultation with the Provost, will decide whether to open a search for a new Ombuds or to fill the position in some other way.
The Welfare Council of the Faculty Senate will conduct a search for all Ombuds positions. Replacement Ombuds faculty will be selected within the first semester of the final term year using the following process. By the first week of September of the final year of his/her first term, each Ombuds faculty must submit a written statement that reminds the Welfare Council Chair of the completion of his/her term and that states whether she/he wishes to be considered for reappointment. If the first-term Ombuds does wish to be considered for reappointment and the Welfare Council endorses this request, the Welfare Council will seek approval from the Faculty Senate Executive Council and the Faculty Senate by no later than the October Faculty Senate meeting. If the reappointment is not approved by the Welfare Council, the Faculty Senate Executive Council, or the Faculty Senate, the Chair of the Welfare Council will notify the Ombuds and the Provost in writing of the outcome and the reasons for the decision. If the reappointment is approved, the Chair of the Welfare Council will seek approval of the reappointment from the Provost within three working days after that meeting date. The Provost will have seven working days to notify the Ombuds faculty and the Chair of the Welfare Council of his/her decision. If the first-term incumbent Ombuds does not wish to be considered for reappointment, or if a reappointment is not approved by the Welfare Council, the Faculty Senate Executive Council, the Faculty Senate, or the Provost, the Welfare Council will proceed to conduct a search according to the following procedure.
In October, the Welfare Council Chair must advertise the soon-to-be vacant position to the Faculty through, at least, email, campus mail, or both. Applications will be accepted until the meeting of the Welfare Council in December. At that meeting, the Welfare Council will determine who to interview for its January meeting. After the interviews, the Welfare Council will seek approval for the replacement from the Faculty Senate Executive Committee and the Faculty Senate by no later than the February Faculty Senate meeting. It is then the Welfare Council Chair's responsibility to seek approval of the name from the Provost within three working days after that meeting date. The Provost will have seven working days to approve and notify the newly selected person and the Welfare Council Chair.
To provide adequate support to the program, a maximum of one course release for each of the fall and spring semesters and one-month summer salary will be provided to each of the Ombuds faculty. If preferred by an Ombuds faculty, overload compensation will be provided.
The issue of compensation is contingent upon the amount of work required of the position. The Welfare Council through the Faculty Senate will review each year whether an adjustment in compensation is needed and its recommendation will be submitted in writing with the May report of the Council to the Faculty Senate and the Chancellor.
As necessary, the Ombuds office may also receive support in the form of A) a student-worker to help with mailings and other necessary tasks and B) help in creating and maintaining a web-site.
The Ombuds office will be centrally located, and will contain, at minimum, a phone and computer. Each Ombuds faculty will be available for 10 hours per week, including five devoted to regular hours in which he/she can be reached at the Ombuds office. Given the nature of Ombuds work, some weeks will involve less than ten hours devoted to the job, and some weeks more. In the summer months, the Ombuds faculty will arrange their schedules so that one Ombuds person is available at least ten hours per week the first half of the summer and the other is available for at least ten hours per week the second half of the summer.
The Ombuds faculty will receive formal training to be funded by the University in four ways: 1) Through education about the specific role of Ombuds faculty, which they will receive from the International Ombudsman Association. 2) Through skills training in alternative dispute resolution offered by various national organizations. 3) Through becoming a member of the International Ombudsman Association. 4) Through training about University policies and procedures to be coordinated by the Faculty Senate, the Office of the Chancellor, and the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs.
To improve the conflict resolution skills of the academic community, deans, department chairs, and other administrators will be encouraged to participate in educational and skills training mentioned above.
The Ombuds faculty will report to the Executive Assistant to the Chancellor.
I. Evaluation of the Ombuds Service
The Ombuds faculty will write an annual report to be reviewed by the Welfare Council. The report will state exactly how many people used the Ombuds service, as well as providing some account of the conflicts involved, while maintaining the confidentiality of the clients involved by excluding names and other identifying information. The report will be due to the Welfare Council by the first week in March of each year.
The Welfare Council will also do its own evaluation of the Ombuds Service every two years. It will send out electronic surveys every other March asking the faculty and administrators: 1) if they sought help through the Ombuds Service. 2) If so, whether the Ombuds faculty addressed the issue in a professional and helpful way, and if the service provided was beneficial. 3) If not, what factors may have persuaded faculty members to seek conflict resolution elsewhere. In addition, the Welfare Council's evaluation will consider the appropriateness of the compensation mentioned in Section E.
Results of the Welfare Council's evaluation will be shared with the Faculty Senate and the Chancellor by no later than the May Faculty Senate meeting.
Revised and approved by Welfare Council January 2006