Last June, I assumed a new role as UNLV’s Ombuds, tasked with re-establishing the Ombuds Office. Over the next seven months, I worked to build an office that adheres to the International Ombuds Association’s Standards of Practice and Code of Ethics and is structured to serve all UNLV employees: an office that is independent, impartial, informal, and confidential.

Together with Tifara Rachal, the Ombuds Office’s admin, I have condensed the office’s accomplishments over calendar 2021 into the just-released UNLV Ombuds Office 2022 Annual Report.

The report provides a brief overview of the office’s purpose, function, and structure, and a summary of the concerns brought to the office throughout 2021.

First, I would like to share some of the work that has been done to give the Ombuds Office substance and structure. In addition to physically creating an office space that would best serve the needs of visitors (and staff) and performing other foundational tasks (like hiring Ms. Rachal). I created a website to deliver information about the office and resources for those with concerns, and drafted a charter that President Whitfield subsequently approved and which has been adopted. The charter is important because it provides a framework for the office’s operation, formally detailing its authority and the limits on that authority. I’ve also convened an advisory panel that can provide direct feedback from several campus constituent groups. To advance the office’s mediation function, I created the campus mediator program, in which employee volunteers complete a 40-hour mediation essentials course and are qualified to mediate conflicts brought to the office. In 2011, the first cohort joined the program; the second has done so this month.

So, at minimum, we now have an Ombuds Office with a welcoming space, a guiding document, a mechanism to communicate with the campus community, a structure for feedback, and a structured alternative dispute resolution mechanism. It’s an office that has been established and will continually evolve to fulfill its four main functions: to listen, to educate, to provide mediation and conflict resolution, and to advocate for systemic change.

Second, I worked to promote the relaunched office around campus, meeting with a series of leaders, staff, faculty, and students to share what the office does and how it can help. If your unit hasn’t seen this presentation, please email me so that we can remedy that. I’ve also created a brochure, flyers, and posters to promote the new Ombuds Office identity.

Third, while setting up the office and getting the word out, I was seeing individual visitors and working with units, which is the core mission of any ombuds office. While a big part of ombuds work is meeting with individuals who are facing issues, I believe the office can best serve the campus by providing better conflict resolution resources and strategies to everyone, which is why I am happy to conduct workshops on a variety of topics.

So, now, some numbers (there are plenty of them in the report, but this will give you the gist). Over the seven months that the office was in operation, I had 219 contacts with faculty, staff, and student employees. They were a mix of academic faculty (37% of contacts), administrative faculty (21%), classified staff (15%), unit leaders, student employees, and community members. Most visitors talked with me for 30 or 60 minutes, although a few meetings went as long as two hours. Remote meetings were most popular, followed by in-person, then by phone. Women were more likely to use the office than men, and the racial and ethnic breakdown of visitors roughly paralleled that of UNLV at large.

Now, the question that you’re probably most curious about: what concerns did people bring to the office?

Before I answer that, let me explain how I recorded information. I do not make notes during sessions, or keep records linking specific issues with any individuals. Instead, I categorize concerns using the International Ombuds Association’s Uniform Reporting Categories (I go into this in some depth in the report, so I’ll spare you the details here). Maintaining a gulf of anonymity between the people who visit the office and the concerns they bring, I’m still able to track, in the aggregate, what people think is wrong and what we can do better.

Communication was the most frequently raised concern, particularly communication with and from one’s supervisor. Respect and treatment from the supervisor was a close second. Issues surrounding promotion and tenure, and general career progression, were third.

Other frequently cited issues included communication and respect among one’s peer group, the quality of services provided, and climate.

Knowing what people are unhappy about is one thing. Doing something to fix the problem is another. While improving climate across campus is a group effort, the Ombuds Office can provide some solutions. We have begun offering more programs, including workshops and facilitated conversations, around communication and leadership.

I would like to highlight two particular workshops that may help us rethink both communication and leadership. The first is Difficult Conversations: How to Make Them Less Painful and More Productive, designed to help us communicate better, particularly in stressful situations. This 60-minute interactive workshop, which combines conversational best practices with roleplay scenarios, is designed to improve peer to peer, supervisor to employee, and employee to supervisor communications.

The second workshop draws on my previous life as a historian studying casinos in Las Vegas. How Bugsy Blew It: Leadership Lessons from a Made Man traces the fatal mistakes that Benjamin “Bugsy” Siegel committed during his brief but impactful tenure as the boss of the storied Flamingo casino. While university leaders are unlikely to emulate Siegel’s methods of persuasion (or fashion sense), he does demonstrate certain patterns of ineffective leadership that we would all do well to avoid.

The facilitated conversation series is another tool that units can use to improve communication. The process of holding the conversation begins the Ombuds holding one-on-one meetings with all members of the unit, followed by an online survey that elicits candid feedback about how the unit should face its challenges. The information received is then shared—without attribution—and used to structure the agenda for the two-hour (or so) conversation. Following the discussion, the Ombuds Office will send a record of what was agreed upon to the unit, who can use it as a framework to adopt real changes in their processes.

Like all of its work, these workshops and services are offered to the campus community with the goal of making UNLV a place where we are all happier and more productive.

I encourage you to read the UNLV Ombuds Office 2022 Annual Report in its entirety; I’ve given you a few brief snippets here, but you can get a fuller picture by doing so.

I’d like to close by thanking Tifara Rachal for her essential help in all stages of bringing this report from a concept to reality, and all those who have used the office for their trust. I look forward to serving UNLV over the following year. As always, if you have any concerns or anything you would like to discuss with a neutral, impartial person in a confidential setting, my door is open.

David G. Schwartz