U of A shuts down Office of Human Rights

The University of Alberta has permanently closed the Office of Human Rights (OHR), a campus service that previously offered confidential advisory and support to students, faculty, and staff facing situations of discrimination, harassment, and employment inequity on campus over the past 18 years.

According to a memo released by the Office of the Vice President (Finance and Administration) on 30 October, the responsibilities of the OHR will soon be reorganized under a single point of access for all University human rights and resources concerns: Internal Audit Services.

The administrative decision to reorganize the OHR was designed to make it easier for those on campus to seek advice about equity, human rights, and safe disclosure services in one place, said Phyllis Clark, Vice President (Finance and Administration).

“Although the Office of Human Rights—as it currently sat—will be closed, we’ve realigned how human rights is going to be taken care of. Because what’s been happening now in a lot of institutions is there’s a lot more things that need neutral intake in a sense. So we’ve established a neutral intake office—or will be. We’re just getting the positions in place,” she explained.

Clark added that the OHR was sitting in a complicated position dealing with concerns of both employers and employees on campus.

“Before what happened with the Office of Human Rights was they were kind of caught betwixt and between because they were both giving advice to the employer, but also trying to take care of the employee, so they were in this weird position,” she noted.

Students wishing to discuss an issue will now be directed towards Internal Audit, located at 307 Campus Tower, where employees will be able to “triage” students to the right place to get help for their specific concerns.

However, the decision to close the OHR was met with surprise by many groups on campus who were not previously consulted in the matter.

“The problem with the memo is that it doesn’t really give a lot of information,” said Dr Lise Gotell, a professor in the department of Women’s Studies and member of the the Association of Academic Staff (AASUA).

“It doesn’t tell us for example, why the University closed the OHR; it does say that the functions, or some of the functions, are going to be moved into Internal Audit. It tries to reassure us that this is really going to be better for things like safe disclosure, although it doesn’t really explain how.”

Gotell also expressed concerns with the visibility that human rights will have on campus with the closure of the office.

“My concern about this is that once the OHR moves into Internal Audit, there’s no visibility attached to human rights on this campus,” she stated.

“Good universities and good workplaces [...] have taken questions of diversity and equity very seriously, because they realize that in order to be economically successful, you have to be a good workplace, and good workplaces promote respect for diversity, they don’t hide it.”

Many remain troubled by the lack of information available about the closure of the OHR, its effect on existing University discrimination and harassment policy, and the implications that its absence—and the absence of its trained professionals and educational programming—will have on campus.

However, Dr Frank Robinson, Dean of Students, noted that these services have largely been, and will still continue to be, available under different offices, including the Student Ombudservice.

“I see this as a step of clarifying where you go. When you go see an ombudsperson, which we have staff here who are highly trained in dealing with these issues, they would then be well appraised, as they are now, of helping students resolve things, let them know there is still a human rights resource,” he said.

The new office will be in place effective 1 January, 2009. Until that time, staff requiring discrimination, harassment, or equity services will be referred to the Non-Academic Staff Association (NASA) or AASUA, while students are encouraged to contact the Office of the Dean of Students.