It's Academic

Since the office’s opening, Ehrenreich says he has handled such problems as complaints about being passed over for promotions, advising issues and conflicts over the authorship of academic papers.

But Ehrenreich says he has not yet dealt with conflicts over the awarding of tenure—a secretive and often-contentious issue at Harvard—though he has met with junior Faculty members who were denied promotions to non-tenured positions.

Other faculty problems stem from “personality conflicts” among department colleagues, Ehrenreich says.

“We see young Faculty members [who are] worried that a senior Faculty member isn’t sympathetic,” he says. “And I tell them to write a letter to the Faculty member and then tear it up and then see if they really want to send the letter. It allows them to delineate their arguments.”

He says that some of his cases involve graduate students who do not receive credit for the ideas that emerge from collaborations with Faculty members.

“It’s mostly a misunderstanding,” Ehrenreich says of the disputes. “Usually the problems are resolved by faculty giving credit. It’s rare that a Faculty member intentionally uses a graduate student’s ideas without giving proper acknowledgement.”

Ehrenreich says he has also dealt with seniors who are having difficulties with their thesis advisers and first-years who are unhappy with their academic advisers.

“Because we’re confidential,” he says, “someone can come in and complain about their adviser without him ever knowing.”

Ehrenreich credits the office with preventing lawsuits against the University by addressing conflicts before they escalate.

“We try very hard to keep disputes inside of Harvard rather than outside,” he says.

In one academic dispute, a junior law professor and a graduate student were “all ready to sue each other” over the authorship of an academic paper, according to Ehrenreich, before visiting the ombudsperson.

“I never heard anything again, so I think it has been resolved,” he says.

Questioning The Role

Despite Ehrenreich’s success stories, several workers have criticized the office’s undefined role and lack of power within in the University.