A civil place to work: Complaints down 6%

Maile Sagen	Lon Moeller

The number of incivility complaints dropped from 98 in the 1999-00 academic year to 83 in 2000-01. Reports of abusive and violent behavior, which while related to the problem are counted apart from general complaints of incivility, dropped over the same period from 11 cases to just three.

And while the percentage of complaints about incivility rose among faculty, from 26 percent in 1999-00 to 38 percent in 2000-01, it was down among both students (from 36 percent to 21 percent) and staff (from 34 percent to 32 percent).

University Ombudsperson Maile Sagen says the numbers are less significant than the efforts undertaken by the University last year after her office’s 14th annual report noted a significant jump in complaints about workplace conflicts. At the urging of the ombudsperson’s office, UI colleges and departments organized several programs and events to raise awareness about incivility and educate employees about their options should they face such problems. In May, an estimated 500 employees attended a University-wide event that featured dramatic presentations and a panel discussion.

“I think we got people’s attention, which was our intent a year ago,” Sagen says.

Efforts to combat incivility are continuing this academic year. A brochure is in the works for spring 2002 that will list all the programming available on the topic of creating a respectful workplace. And the University Dispute Resolution Committee, which has just completed its revisions of the University’s sexual harassment/consensual relationship policy, will work on drafting a policy on general harassment.

“We have policies for sexual harassment, discrimination, and violence but not one for this general, everyday sort of rudeness and offensive behavior that contribute to an atmosphere of incivility,” Sagen says.

Without such a policy in place, she adds, supervisors have no official document to reference in disciplining employees.

“I think having these policies in place, and having them made known to everyone who works here, will be very important,” she says.

Overall, the ombudsperson’s office saw a 6 percent drop in all types of complaints combined, from 331 in 1999-00 to 310 in 2000-01. The majority of the complaints came from UI staff (169, or 54 percent of the total complaints), followed by students (89, or 29 percent), faculty (45, or 15 percent) and “other,” defined as anonymous or from outside the University (7, or 2 percent).

Most of the staff complaints were related to job conflicts with coworkers and supervisors (47 percent for merit staff, 55 percent for professional and scientific staff). The same held true for faculty in 42 percent of the complaints. Student complaints, on the other hand, were largely about academic issues (70 percent for undergraduate students and 67 percent for graduate students), such as grades and grade appeals, conflicts with faculty members, and conflicts with advisers.

Of particular interest to the ombudsperson’s office were complaints by students and faculty about academic dishonesty, such as cheating and plagiarism.

“These problems are more prevalent than ever, especially with the increase in group and team assignments, electronic testing, and students taking and using material off the Internet without attribution,” the annual report states.

The report says this problem is plaguing colleges and universities across the country and it suggests that deans and faculty consider countermeasures in the form of software packages, such as Scanexam for exams and Turnitin, a plagiarism-detection program developed at the University of California-Berkeley.

The report says it’s important in the coming year for instructors to make clear to students the University’s policy on academic honesty and the potential repercussions for cheating. Even if faculty don’t use software that detects cheating, alerting students that it could be used may serve as a further deterrent.

“We all need to be mindful of why academic institutions value academic honesty and to continually transmit that to students,” the report says.

UI President Mary Sue Coleman appoints University ombudspersons. Sagen serves as the staff ombudsperson. Lon Moeller, clinical associate professor in the Henry B. Tippie College of Business, is serving as the half-time faculty ombudsperson.

The full text of the report is available on the web at www.uiowa.edu/~ooombuds or by mail from the Office of the Ombudsperson, C108 SSH.

Article by Stephen Pradarelli