Ombud

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The Ombud is the official mediator between the departmental staff and faculty and the students. In the tradition of Scandinavian labor history, the Ombud has played an important part in negotiations between the workers and management. Problems that occur between faculty and students may be taken through the Ombud. A meeting is held at the beginning of each academic year to elect the Ombud and deputy Ombud. The duties of the Ombud are as follows: 

• The Ombud shall act as itermediary between the faculty and the students in all cases where students feel the need of such an intermediary agancy. He/she shall be empowered to investigate and evaluate students' grievances and/or suggestions to what he/she judges to be the appropriate factulty member or faculty committee.

• The Ombud shall be elected by the students and teaching assistants in the Scandinavian Department for a term of one academic year, at an election held in September. This meeting shall be chaired by the retiring Ombud, or, in the event the retiring Ombud has left the University, by a deputy appointed by the retiring Ombud. (For the purpose of electing an Ombud, "student" is defined as any undergraduate major, graduate major, or Ph.D. minor in the department.) It is the retiring Ombud's (or deputy's) responsibility to inform the eligible electorate of the time and place of this meeting.

• A candidate for Ombud shall not have a grading position during the year in which he/she is to serve. At the time of the Ombud's election, a deputy Ombud will also be elected in the event the Ombud should accept a grading position.

 

Our current Ombud is Hilary Virtanen, and his email address is virtanen@wisc.edu The alternate is Jackson Crawford, and his email address is jcrawford2@wisc.edu.