PEER ADVISORY AND OMBUDSPERSON COMMITTEE - 2020/21

Co-Chair: Aimee Cox, PhD, Associate Professor of Anthropology and African American Studies
Co-Chair: Matthew JacobsonFASS Chair; William Robertson Coe Professor of American Studies and Professor of African American Studies and of History

Ruzica Piskac, Associate Professor on Term, Computer Science

Non-FASS members:
Jill Campbell, Professor of English
Arielle Baskin-Sommers, Associate Professor of Psychology and of Psychiatry

The Peer Advisory Committee is an impartial, independent service committee designed to uphold fair practices in FAS, promote transparency, and contribute to the welfare of the faculty. The Committee’s primary function is to provide neutral and, to the extent legally possible, confidential advice to faculty who have concerns about any aspect of their work in FAS.  Faculty members may approach the Peer Advisory Committee if they prefer to seek counsel and advice from neutral members of the faculty rather than through departmental or administrative channels.  They may also have recourse to the Peer Advisory Committee if they have exhausted other channels and feel that their concerns have not been addressed satisfactorily.  In responding to individual faculty members’ concerns, the role of the Peer Advisory Committee may include:  listening; providing information about relevant resources, offices, and procedures; developing a range of options; and (with permission) engaging in third-party mediation.

Given the limits imposed by the Committee’s current status, we will continue to advocate for the establishment of a University Ombuds Office as described and recommended by the Peer Advisory Committee in their report to the President and Provost on 30 April 2019.