{"id":18,"date":"2009-10-30T16:01:58","date_gmt":"2009-10-30T20:01:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/?page_id=18"},"modified":"2024-07-23T20:16:18","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T00:16:18","slug":"services","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/how-we-help\/services\/","title":{"rendered":"When should I contact the Ombuds?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" height=\"188\" width=\"332\" alt=\"\" src=\"\/ombuds\/files\/2020\/10\/talking2.jpg\" class=\"wp-image-1994 size-full alignright\" \/><\/p>\n<h2>Contact the Office when:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>You need an impartial and confidential sounding board.<\/li>\n<li>You think you may have been treated unfairly.<\/li>\n<li>You want to report a problem but first you want to get a sense of possible outcomes.<\/li>\n<li>You want to discuss a University policy or practice that you think is unfair or problematic.<\/li>\n<li>You\u2019ve been through a formal grievance and you think procedural errors were made.<\/li>\n<li>You are not sure how to interpret a University policy or procedure.<\/li>\n<li>You are not sure which University policy applies to your situation.<\/li>\n<li>You need a mediator or a facilitator.<\/li>\n<li>You are not sure where else to turn for help and need guidance.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Any type of University-related concern may be brought to the Ombuds Office by any member of the BU community.\u00a0 Here are examples of common situations:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Requests for clarification of a policy or process.<\/li>\n<li>Help dealing with interpersonal conflicts.<\/li>\n<li>Help dealing with concerns about unethical, uncivil, or inappropriate behavior.<\/li>\n<li>Help dealing with concerns about financial malfeasance.<\/li>\n<li>Questions about health and life safety.<\/li>\n<li>Concerns about office politics, workplace climate, and work equity.<\/li>\n<li>Questions about intellectual property.<\/li>\n<li>Guidance on how to have difficult conversations and communicate respectfully.<\/li>\n<li>Problems with institutional non-responsiveness and red tape.<\/li>\n<li>Concerns about procedural fairness or due process.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Contact the Office when: You need an impartial and confidential sounding board. You think you may have been treated unfairly. You want to report a problem but first you want to get a sense of possible outcomes. You want to discuss a University policy or practice that you think is unfair or problematic. You\u2019ve been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2129,"featured_media":0,"parent":28,"menu_order":2,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2129"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18"}],"version-history":[{"count":45,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2847,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/18\/revisions\/2847"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/28"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/ombuds\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}