Queen's University Faculty Raise Concerns About Ombuds
According to an article in the Queen's University Journal, the faculty union has raised concerns about a perceived conflict in the Office of the University Ombudsperson. The Queen’s University Faculty Association does not name the Ombuds in its statement (which is not publicly available), but points out that she is married to a senior university administrator. QUFA also has concerns about the Ombuds' reporting structure, which changed in 2023 from the University Secretariat to the Vice-Principal of Culture, Equity, and Inclusion.
In response, Queen's University explained there were administrative mechanisms in place to preserve impartiality. Moreover, Ombuds office was realigned, "to ensure [it] was provided with adequate human resources and administrative support. From an accountability perspective, the Ombudsperson continues to report directly to the Board of Trustees, ensuring independence from university administration." Queen's confirmed that an external review isn’t currently being considered. (QU Journal.)
There have been a number of recent internal selections for University Ombuds roles in Canada. This article highlights a few factors of the potential for damaging the value and the purpose of an Ombuds function when impartiality or confidentiality is difficult to substantiate on face value. Perception is reality. It further indicates the importance of the depth of analysis and consideration required in the recruitment process to determine the appropriate candidate for the role. With the precarity (due to funding and lack of understanding the value of the role) and sparcity of Ombuds functions in Canada this article should be viewed as another indicator of how quickly an Ombuds function can become devalued by its prospective users due to poor organizational design of the function. Here it seems the Ombuds is left in a continual "fight" to explain their impartial and confidential standards of their role. How do you get a prospective user to engage in such a program when the user's trust of the system is at question from the outset? What can Queen's do now as this had been a Office struggling with engagement and declining use for a number of years based on their stats?
ReplyDeleteAs a former Ombuds at 2 Canadian Universities the landscape has changed dramatically in the last 10 years. Under a Federal government who made DEI the unofficial hiring mandate Universities stopped hiring male Ombuds. Someone can prove me wrong with the math.. Once you go down that rabbit hole you substitute values. We have had many fine women Ombuds lest I start a war. I have said it before and it's more true today, with Canadian Universities under financial stress Ombuds will go to'Nice to have but not Necessary'
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