The newest University of California campus has announced the appointment of Deidre “De” Acker as its first Campus Ombudsperson, effective July 16, 2012. Chancellor Dorothy Leland made the announcement earlier this week. Leland said that the new Ombuds “will actively engage students, faculty, staff and university constituents in dialog, negotiation and problem-solving to ensure that members of our campus community receive fair and equitable treatment.”

Acker has served as assistant…

A recent Harvard Law Case Study features a scenario that will resonate with university ADR experts and practitioners.  In the case study, a University Ombuds is involved in an effort to update a sexual harassment policy.  Here's the summary:

Langdell University, in the state of Ames, is one of the oldest and most prestigious universities in the country. Since the late 1970’s Langdell University has had a single sexual harassment procedure for all of its undergraduate,…