Oral History of OSU's Founding Ombuds

Ohio State University Oral History Project recently interviewed Donald W. Good, who founded the university's Ombuds office in 1970. Good describes the concerns that motivated OSU and how he worked with the campus. Some excerpts:

You can not deny that 1970 changed everything at every university in this state. And once you set that in motion, then you try to respond in various ways. Now, one way was the establishment of an Ombudsman.

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You don’t want to be seen as an advocate for a group. Rather, you want to be seen as an advocate for fair play, for ethical treatment, that kind of thing. Ideological advocacy on the right side of the spectrum, or what you think is the right side of the spectrum. The other thing in leaving, it’s negative, I mentioned that just hearing these complaints all day long.

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The reason you have an Ombudsman is because things are closed in a way. Routes of access are closed. Hearings are closed. Those sorts of things. The gates come down across the road. But I think universities got better at keeping access open and were well aware because, I tell you, once the Ombudsman office started, the lawyers were sitting right outside the door.

The 113-page transcript has just been made available on-line. (OSU Knowledge Bank.)

Note: The role of the OSU Ombuds Office was assumed by the Student Advocacy Center in 1996.