Correction on Feb. 10: This story has been updated to reflect that the University of Oregon Ombuds Program did not start as a U.S. government project. It was also updated to reflect that UO Ombudspersons hear complaints; they do not investigate.
The University of Oregon’s Ombuds Program, operating since 2014, provides a variety of confidential communication and conflict resolution services, with resources for both staff and students.
UO’s Ombuds Program opened their permanent location on East 17th Avenue by Hayward Field and Kalapuya Ilihi in 2016, according to Around the O. The staff of three works to meet the needs of the campus community in providing what UO Ombudsperson Brett Harris called an “independent, confidential, informal and neutral resource.”
An Ombudsperson hears complaints and serves as conflict management representatives for the University of Oregon, according to the Ombuds Program website. Additionally, the program creates workshops for university events and provides information about concerns and trends to the University leadership, according to the site.
“It’s a really unique program,” Harris said. She began working for the UO’s Ombuds Program in August 2016, according to Around the O.
Harris explained how students may use the Ombuds Program. Housing conflicts, roommate disagreements and issues with professors are all reasons for students to visit the office tucked behind Kalapuya Ilihi, Harris said. The Ombuds website provides links to campus-central resources for members of the UO community, broken down for both faculty and students.
Ombuds is a confidential employee, meaning they “will not share information disclosed to them with others,” according to UO’s student sexual harassment policy. An Ombudsperson “does not have a legal privilege of confidentiality,” but “must take steps to avoid, whenever possible, disclosure of confidential records and information,” according to the policy. Despite not being legally obligated to retain confidentiality, it is within the Ombuds Program’s professional code of ethics to keep the information as private as possible.
The policy continues to define the Ombudsperson’s role in the context of sexual harassment. “While the University considers conversations with the Ombudsperson to be private, some records may be disclosed pursuant to a search warrant or subpoena and may not be legally confidential,” the policy said. “In addition, the ombudsperson will periodically report non-personally identifiable information about sexual and gender-based and harassment and violence it has received to the Title IX Coordinator,” in order to inform the Title IX office about campus and non-campus misconduct. “This will help the Title IX Coordinator track patterns, evaluate the scope of the problem, and formulate appropriate campus-wide response,” it continued.
Every year, the Ombuds Program releases a document reporting activity and data. The 2018 report detailed 16 communication and conflict management training sessions over the course of the year. The report said that the program served as neutral observers in 21 campus meetings, and, in total, managed 399 cases covering over 1000 concerns. That’s 153 more cases than FY2017, according to the previous year’s report.
The Ombuds Program released the 2019 volume Feb. 3. “We were really consistent with last year in terms of cases, and even the types of cases,” Harris said.
Harris said the Ombuds Program focused heavily on outreach and advertisement in 2019. Harris said that outreach varied — tabling events, resource fairs, outreach to student organizations and making contact with residence halls and Greek life.
Many numbers within the 2019 report remained stable from last year’s report — the percentage of staff and student visitors stayed consistent, according to the report. There was a decrease in overall visitors, however, from 810 total visitors in 2018 to 539 in 2019, according to the report. Faculty visitation increased by 10% and administration visitors increased by 8%, according to the report.
“Overall, we’re a pretty robust program,” Harris said.
