YPA Statement on Ombuds Office at Yale

This statement joins other student and faculty organizations in calling for a campus-wide organizational ombuds. We aim to highlight the particular need of the postdoc community to safely access channels for grievance reporting and informal support, and to emphasize the benefits of a dedicated campus-wide organizational ombuds for our community and the wider institutional climate.

 

We, the Yale Postdoctoral Association (YPA) Advocacy Committee and additional postdocs signed below, support the trainee community and all postdocs at Yale University to serve the mission of the YPA in creating a sense of community and respectful engagement at Yale University. The YPA strives to support and enrich the pursuit of scholarship, education, preservation, and practice of postdoctoral scholars. This is not possible when trainees and scholars are discouraged from reporting grievances, fear negative consequences due to the lack of impartial and confidential grievance procedures, or are kept uninformed on formal and informal support channels, leading to struggles to navigate diffuse, siloed resources. As such, we support the ongoing advocacy efforts by students and faculty in calls for an ombuds office, including the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) and Graduate & Professional Student Senate (GPSS), who both passed Resolution S23-003: Call for a University-wide Ombuds Office in April 2023, and Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS) and School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS) Senate (FAS-SEAS-S), who have contributed years of effort and made calls to establish a university-wide Ombuds Office [1][2][3].

 

We join the call to Yale Leadership and the broader institution to establish a campus-wide organizational ombuds office that complies with the International Ombuds Association Standards of Practice [4]. That is, an informal, confidential, independent, and impartial office, where individuals can share their grievances in a safe and trauma-informed space, learn about remedial options, and receive guidance on formal and informal support channels. Additionally, we call for the ombuds office to have an established Charter and to publish a yearly report to foster transparency and accountability with the wider Yale community. We also call on the university to provide adequate logistic and financial support to meet the standards of practice, and to have a dedicated impartial ombudsperson who is not an affiliated faculty member of the university.

 

A dedicated ombudsperson not only benefits students, trainees, faculty, and staff but also the university itself. By providing a safe space for individuals to feel heard, Ombuds can provide a humanizing aspect and prevent tensions from escalating. Ombuds would also demystify the process of identifying appropriate channels by providing direct guidance from the beginning. This would prevent re-traumatization and psychological distress associated with seeking support across several scattered channels. It would also conserve the university and channel resources otherwise used to redirect people to other offices. An ombuds office will help promote prompt de-escalation and grievance redressal, and generate trust among the Yale community members by nurturing institutional courage [5]. 

 

The privilege of leadership should be guided by a set of principles that serves those who are most impacted, and it’s time for the Yale leadership to address the needs of the community and promote a culture of trust and compassion. The leadership has taken great pride in their Belonging at Yale initiative and expanded support for postdoctoral professional development, yet as a postdoc community with a large proportion of international trainees, our sense of belonging is jeopardized when we feel lost and apprehensive in approaching the official grievance redressal channels.

 

Azmi Ahmad, Jacqueline Mann, Ishita Arora, Sabine Franklin, Courtney Choy, Claire Laxton, Nora Pyenson and Nicolo Mangraviti.

 

References

1. Wanna, Carly. “FAS Senate discuss creation of Ombuds Office.” Yale Daily News, April 24, 2019. FAS Senate discusses creation of Ombuds Office - Yale Daily News
2. Porayouw, William. “Faculty continue to advocate for Yale ombudsperson.” Yale Daily News, March 09, 2023. Faculty continue to advocate for Yale ombudsperson - Yale Daily News
3. Hostetler, Jim. “LETTERS 3.26.” Yale Daily News, March 26, 2023. LETTERS 3.26 - Yale Daily News
4. Burton and Mershon, Assessing the Establishment of Ombuds Offices in Professional Academic Research Associations. Journal of the International Ombudsman Association. 2021; 14(1). https://www.ombudsassociation.org/assets/docs/JIOA_Articles/2021_JIOA_K.pdf
5. Gomez et al., Institutional Courage in Action: Racism, Sexual Violence, & Concrete Institutional Change. J Trauma Dissociation. 2023; 24(2). Full article: Institutional Courage in Action: Racism, Sexual Violence, & Concrete Institutional Change (tandfonline.com)