The Ombuds Blog: Mills College Students Seek Ombuds

April 26, 2007

Mills College Students Seek Ombuds

An ad hoc group of students at Mills College has issued a demand for a student ombuds. The Committee for Change seeks to force the College to address "ADA compliance and accessibility, reinstatement of a student appointed Ombudsman, lack of resources for parenting students, and retention in both the faculty and staff and the student body." The Committee wants the ombuds to be elected, paid and supervised by the student body. If the demands are not met, the Committee is "prepared to take direct action against Mills." (Mills College Weekly, Mills College on LiveJournal.)

2 comments:

Anonymous4/27/2007 11:10 AM
WOW! Reading about this student activism (and their demand for an ombudsman) really took me back to era in which the first U.S. ombuds offices were established in the late sixties (when I was one of those very students)!
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Tom Kosakowski4/27/2007 1:50 PM
Here's another story about students agitating for an ombuds -- in this case one to protect housekeepers. (Pomona Students Press Demand for Staff Ombuds.)
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Organizational Ombuds

Organizational Ombuds serve as a confidential, independent, neutral and informal dispute resolution resource for a specific entity. They are accessible to a defined population and can advocate for fairness. These unique characteristics distinguish Organizational Ombuds from Classical Ombuds, mediators, arbitrators, and other alternative dispute resolution professionals. The term "Ombuds" is shorthand for "Ombudsman," "Ombudsperson" and "Ombuds Officer," which also are used widely.

Some other variants include:

Austria -- Ombudsstelle

Brazil -- Ouvidor

Croatia -- pravobranitelji

France -- médiateur/defénseur

Germany -- Ombudspersonen

Italy -- difensore

Netherlands -- ombudspersoon

Norway -- ombudet

Poland -- Rzecznik

Portugal -- provedor

Russia -- омбудсмен

Spain -- ombudsman organizacional

Sweden -- studentombud

Switzerland -- ombudsmann

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