When to Contact

Conflicts and disputes are inevitable as each person engages in work, study, research, classes, teaching, living/residing, and otherwise engaging with others in our daily lives on all three OU campuses. These conflicts can derive from any individual, or combination of issues.

You can reach out to the Ombuds Office early in a conflict, as a last resort or at any point in between – even if you have already filed a formal grievance or sought other solutions. The Ombuds Office works independently of all other offices and operations on campus and can assist informally at any point. Early engagement is recommended but not required. It is common that conflicts between individuals may exist for months or years between individuals or groups. If you do not seek early resolution, the intervening time can negatively impact you, the other person(s) in the conflict, and others that are not involved directly including students and others we are here to serve.

The possibilities for conflict and disputes are numerous. The examples below are not all-inclusive and are provided to help identify general areas of conflict and help with your decision to reach out to the Ombuds Office.

Faculty, Staff, Graduate Students, and Undergraduate Student Sources of Conflict

Examples:

Tenure and Post-Tenure Review
Sabbatical
Promotion
Grants and Research
Interpersonal conflicts with other faculty or staff
Publication issues
Intellectual property disputes
Policy or procedure concerns
Facility or space allocation or use
Purchasing or resource acquisition
Retirement
Shift or Work Assignments
Safety concerns
Sexual harassment, threats and other violations of law
Access and Opportunity concerns
Technology availability or use
Lack of communication from leadership/management
Committee engagement or other group conflicts
Supervisor/Department Head conflicts
Changes in leadership and mission adjustments
Vacant positions and excessive workloads
Graduate Assistant work related issues
Thesis and Dissertation issues

What Happens When You Make Contact?

Remember, use of ombuds services is completely voluntary and there is no cost for any services provided. You cannot be compelled by a supervisor, management, leadership, professor or any other person or office to use ombuds services.

The ombudsperson will schedule a meeting with you to discuss in detail the situation. You may schedule a meeting by calling 405-325-4137 or by emailing ombuds@ou.edu. If scheduling or communicating via email, please do not include any confidential information. The ombudsperson will limit use of email during all interactions to help preserve confidentiality.

You can also come to the Ombudsperson office in Bizzell Memorial Library, room 213. That method is fine, but previously scheduled visitors or other duties may result in an inability to meet with the ombudsperson at that time.

If you have an emergency involving an immediate threat to your health and safety or one that makes it impossible for you to return to an office or other location to engage in normal activities pending a meeting with the ombudsperson, it is recommended you either call the OU Police Department (threats against health and safety) at 405-325-2864, or reach out to other resources. If you send an email it may take several hours or longer for a response depending on when it is received.

Ways to Meet with the Ombuds Person

Face-to-face is preferrable as it provides the best way for communication to be effective.
Zoom meetings are an option for those not on campus and for those that making face-to-face contact is not reasonable. This includes faculty, staff and students at the OU Health Sciences Center and OU-Tulsa campuses.
- Zoom is also an option for those that are concerned about health issues such as COVID-19. The ombudsperson will follow OU’s COVID-19 and other health guidelines to ensure interactions can take place effectively, and safely.
When face-to-face and Zoom are not possible, the meeting can be done by telephone.

Due to the potential complexity of any conflict situation, meetings will be scheduled to last no less than 90 minutes even if they only take a fraction of this time. This is to ensure that adequate time is available to address all elements of a situation. The ombudsperson will ask the Visitor to ensure they have at least this much time to meet even if the Visitor believes it will take far less time.