In a Feb. 6 e-mail to colleagues, College President James Wright announced the creation of a College Ombuds Office and appointed long-time administrator Mary Childers to a temporary, part-time position as ombudsman. The move was in response to a report released Feb. 2 by the Administrative Working Group, a consortium of administrators tasked by Wright to address the concerns identified by McKinsey, which called for a more transparent administrative system.
In an interview with The Dartmouth, Wright explained his rationale for creating the office.
In the past, staff members have been able to go to their supervisors with complaints, Wright said. In response to open meetings and recent surveys, staff members suggested "an office as a traffic cop, to solve problems people might have and help mediate matters," he explained.
"It struck us as something I'd want to try," he said.
In his e-mail, Wright said that as an ombudsman, Childers will report directly to him and will "work outside the grievance procedures" presently under the jurisdiction of human resources and the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office.
Before the creation of the Ombuds Office, Childers said, staff members with grievances had the options of speaking with their supervisors, with human resources, or with the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Office. These outlets were available to faculty members, in addition to the option of speaking with their department heads. Due to a number of complaints from staff members about the need for more resources, the working group recommended that the College create an Ombuds office.
The Ombuds Office will "provide a neutral, confidential and informal resource" for all non-faculty employees, according to Wright's message. Provost Barry Scherr said that this goal is in line with other such offices throughout the Ivy League. Faculty and students, Wright explained, will continue to seek guidance for their concerns through appropriate deans' offices.
Childers directed the Dartmouth Women's Resource Center from March 1991 to January 1993, and directed the Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action from 1993 to 1998. Afterward, she served briefly as a development officer for the College, and for several years worked as a dean at Brandeis University.
For the next 18 months, Childers will serve as ombudsman for the College, and she said she doesn't expect to be reappointed.
Wright and Scherr said that the position is temporary, but the College will monitor its progress in the developmental stages to determine how to make it as successful a program as possible.
"After another year or so, we'll take a look at how the office is operating and get a sense of what the needs for the office actually are," Scherr said. "At that time we'll appoint several people to look at the operation, and then we'll decide what to do."
"[An ombudsman should] understand higher education, and [know] how to be fair and impartial and to listen to a variety of different perspectives," Childers said.
She believes that her experience with both higher education and dispute resolution consulting provide her with the skills needed to make a successful ombudsman.
Childers also said she enjoys general personnel work more than working solely with race or gender issues, as she did when she directed the Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action office.
"There needs to be something other than affirmative action that can supplement human resources, so that issues aren't always addressed about race or sex," Childers said.
An example Childers provided was if a woman staff member has a baby, and her supervisor denies her request to work part time.
"Sometimes the person wants to talk to someone else about it other than affirmative action or human resources. She might ask, Is that fair, is that really the policy, do I have a right to go part time when I want to? Are there any other solutions for me?" Childers said.
Although the example she provided was gender-related and could fall under the jurisdiction of another office, Childers said that sometimes people do not want to pitch their problems as "discrimination."
"Sometimes things don't have to be pitched that way, and it's easier to solve them if you don't immediately accuse people of discrimination," she said.
Staff writer Hillary Wool contributed to this article.
