CPH Forum :)

Today I attended the CPH Forum, held once a month with Dean Curry. They are a great way to get updated on the latest happenings within the College of Public Health but also opportunities to learn more about our campus and community. Today we had the Office of the Ombudsperson and Threat Assessment Team (TAT) presenting. I'm going to focus on the Ombudsperson, because I was so intrigued by the issues they deal with on-campus!

Office of the Ombudsperson:

At first, all I could think about was what the heck is an Ombudsperson, and what does such an office do on campus. So before I tell you what I found out, I looked up the definition online:

"A public official who acts as an impartial intermediary between the public and government or bureaucracy, or an employee of an organization who mediates disputes between employees and management"

The two ladies, Susan and Cynthia, who run the office explained that they deal with disputes and issues surrounding them on-campus. They said some of the most common things they run across are "disrespect," which has a lot to do with the communication style of those in the Midwest (Indirect) and Outside the Midwest (Direct). These are generalizations, but on average those from the Midwest tend to be more indirect in their communication and can become offended when someone is more direct, and vice versa. One way is not better over the other, it is just the way it is and the root of some of the issues on-campus. On another note, they also talked about the issues surrounding email (i.e. forwarding messages that shouldn't be, CCing people on issues they don't need to be, saying things in email you would normally not say face-to-face). I'm sure as our lives become more digital, this will become more of an issue, but it was nice to know there is such an office that deals with such a topic of our social lives.

Well I hope you learned something new, as I did this afternoon, haha. Hope you all have a great weekend! Will blog about TAT next time :)

Ryan

PS - I included the header photo from the Office of the Ombudsperson because it reminded me of Spring and it's supposed to warm up in the 40's this week!