Neutral advising on various life topics

By Katlin Sweeney

Features Editor

Students, staff and faculty have an office on campus to go for advising in a confidential setting with a unique group of advisors.

The Office of University Ombuds seeks to give all students, faculty and staff members on campus a safe place where they can talk through any concerns or issues in a non-counseling setting. Ombuds aims to create a neutral environment where visitors can look at all possible solutions to resolve an issue and get help finding resources on campus that can gear them towards success.

“We help students with ordinary transitions and ordinary problems that normal, healthy people go through. With staff and faculty, if they have issues like confusing or mixed messages with a coworker, it’s best that they come in early before it becomes a big problem,” Interim Ombud Fritz Kreisler said.

CSUSM’s Ombuds Office initially started with the presence of Derrick Crawford, who until recently served as the Associate Vice President For Diversity and Equity. He played an instrumental role in not only being the sole ombuds advisor, but starting the framework of the office and developing its charter. President Haynes has also been involved with the creation of the office, being one of the strongest supporters of ombuds from the very beginning.

Since January 2013, the Ombuds Office has shifted from a single advisor structure to featuring multiple Interims, advisors that work together to help visitors that come into the office. The four members of ombuds all bring something unique to the office, each having their own specialties that allow them to advise a variety of topics. They are trained to be better listeners, unbiased and are able to separate their Ombuds position from their other jobs and positions on campus.

Visitors can also decide if they want to be advised by a man or woman and which interim ombuds is the right personality match for them.

The interim ombuds are Dr. Martha Stoddard-Holmes, a literature and writing studies professor and former department chair, Fritz Kreisler, lead psychologist at CSUSM since 1992 and Rodger D’Andreas-Wahl, a therapist, professor, overseer of ASI and influential CSUSM staff member. The ombuds advisor is Michelle Hunt, overseeing the interim ombuds and helping them advise difficult or challenging cases.

“The idea was that with the interim appointments, they wanted multiple people who know the campus really well. I have been here since 2001 and am familiar with the campus. I work with students and staff,” D’Andreas-Wahl said. “Martha Stoddard-Holmes works with students and faculty. Fritz meets with faculty and staff. Every visitor has two options, under the current plan, with three [Interims] in terms of who they can meet with.”

Everything that is said to an Interim is kept confidential unless it poses an imminent risk to that person, someone else or is a clear violation of the law. While ombuds does not seek to replace other offices or services on campus, it gives students, staff and faculty an alternative route when discussing or resolving issues.  Unlike Student Health and Counseling Services, ombuds does not focus mainly on psychological issues. Visitors have been advised on topics such as ways to achieve better success in a class, personality clashes with a professor or student, deciding if they are going to stay at CSUSM and staff getting along better with a supervisor.

The Interims do not act on behalf of the visitor or enforce consequences against people that are mentioned during sessions. The visitors must change the situation themselves, however Interims may help facilitate conversations between disagreeing parties if the visitor requests help in that way. CSUSM staff and faculty can also feel comfortable discussing issues in the workplace, no conversations that involve their boss or coworkers being repeated to anyone outside of the office.

“I’m interested in hearing people’s stories. As a researcher, I am really interested in problem solving. Sometimes my problems are intellectual, but the love of problems and puzzles help me want to solve the puzzles of the daily lives on campus,” Stoddard Holmes said.

“My personal goal is to have everyone who comes into the office leave in a better place than they started and to know that there is somebody to help and to listen. I want to empower them to help themselves, to understand what resources are at this university and for them to have a plan of action that they can implement when they leave,” Hunt said.

For more information on what situations ombuds can help with, go to www.csusm.edu/ombuds/. The Office of the Ombuds is located in Craven 6218. Confidential appointments can be made by phone at (760) 750-8366 or by emailing Marilyn McWilliams at [email protected].