In resolving complaints of harassment or discrimination, universities face a challenge: students often don’t report incidents because they don’t want to be identified.
But a new tool at the University of Oregon enables students to remain anonymous when reporting intolerant or abusive behavior. It’s a big step forward for addressing complaints and providing students with resources to recover or take action, according to the UO’s Office of Investigations and Civil Rights Compliance, which is responsible for addressing reports of discrimination, harassment and retaliation.
OICRC recently adopted RealResponse, a popular digital platform for anonymous exchanges in a protected space. Students can provide information anonymously to officials of the civil rights office through a phone call, text or email that is encrypted and secure.
“Students can decide whether they want to reveal their identity to us,” said Nicole Commissiong, associate vice president and chief civil rights officer. “If they don’t provide their identity, we’ll still be able to share resources and information with them.”
Students can call or text 541-313-HELP (4357) or scan a QR code on the office web page to make anonymous reports and engage with civil rights officials. Officials then connect them with resources including the university’s Counseling Services and Care and Advocacy Program, or Lane County organizations such as Sexual Assault Support Services and the Hope and Safety Alliance.
As a caring community, and to promote a compassionate campus community, the university expects all employees to provide a safe, respectful and inclusive learning and work environment for students, faculty and staff and fulfill their reporting requirements. Almost all employees are designated reporters, which means if they become aware of an alleged incident of discriminatory misconduct that involves a student or employee, they are always obligated to report information they have to OICRC. RealResponse is a promising new tool that employees should share with students who disclose discrimination or harassment concerns. It will also help the office provide a timely response. The office examines allegations of discrimination, harassment and retaliation, conducting investigations as necessary for possible violations of university policy.
Students, staff, faculty and all other members of the UO community can report concerns and complaints about potential discrimination and discriminatory harassment to the office. Commissiong said that it’s often straightforward to make changes to a student’s own learning or social environment without the need to alert others — a student wanting to avoid a class with another student can be guided to do so without alerting the other student, for example. In contrast, it is usually far more difficult to address workplace concerns because the concerns are typically identifying of those involved.
Historically, in situations in which students leave little in the way of identifying information and other details when reporting an incident, the office has often been unable to gather additional needed information to respond to concerns or connect students with resources. That’s changed with RealResponse, founded in 2016 by David Chadwick, formerly a basketball player at Valparaiso University.
Chadwick saw an opportunity to improve the student-athlete experience with a digital communication platform that promotes healthy relationships with coaches and teammates while offering support services.
RealResponse connects athletes, students and employees through anonymous, two-way communication threads. The platform has more than 200 customers spanning the National Football League and Major League Baseball teams, national governing bodies, and colleges and universities including Texas A&M, Connecticut and Butler.
The UO initially implemented the tool with the Office of Fraternity and Sorority Life and recently made it available university-wide for students.
RealResponse will assist the civil rights office in data collection and case management while maintaining anonymity, Commissiong said. While the office is unable to preserve anonymity for incidents that require formal investigation, she added that in many cases, either an investigation is not necessary to resolve students’ concerns or students are asking for resources to help them move forward.
“I hope RealResponse will mean that more students will get the help they need,” Commissiong said. “We recognize a lot of people are not interested in investigations for a variety of reasons. It’s still important to get people help.”
—Matt Cooper, University Communications