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🌐 hsombuds.pitt.edu📧 ombuds@hs.pitt.edu

Mission and Goals

Our mission is to provide confidential guidance, support, and resources to students and postdoctoral trainees:

·       Navigate interpersonal conflicts with peers, mentors, or other colleagues

·       Explore options for addressing concerns

·       Explain policies and procedures

·       Strengthen communication and problem-solving skills

·  Support institutional improvement by identifying and communicating patterns, trends, and systemic concerns to University leaders while maintaining the confidentiality of all visitors. 

More information can be found in the Ombuds Office charter.

What is the Ombuds Office?

The Ombuds Office is a confidential, neutral, informal, and independent resource — guided by the International Ombuds Association (IOA) principles.
We are:

·      Confidential:  Conversations with an Ombuds are strictly confidential with only two exceptions:

·       If there’s an imminent risk of serious harm to you or others.

·       If we are legally required to disclose information.

o   As University employees, we are mandated reporter for certain situations. If you share information about sexual harassment or misconduct, we are required to report it so that the appropriate office can reach out to you. This doesn’t mean you have to take any formal action—it’s simply so they can offer support and explain your options. If you share that a crime has occurred, we must break confidentiality.

We will only share identifying information with your permission.
If an issue can’t be shared without identifying you, and you don’t give consent, we won’t share it.

·   Impartial: We don’t take sides or advocate for any party. We are here as a neutral resource to think through possible paths forward.

·    Informal: Our conversations are off the record. We do not initiate a formal complaint, conduct investigations, or keep records.

·    Independent: We operate separately from all academic and administrative offices.

Our services are…

· Voluntary: Meeting with the Ombuds is completely your choice and we never share that you visited our office.

·   Visitor-driven: All decisions about how to move forward or address the situation are made by you. Ombuds offer perspective, resources, and options, but what you choose to do (or not do) is entirely up to you.

You can come to us with any issue—big or small—just to talk it through.