Ithaca College

Sue-Je Gage will continue to offer Faculty Advocate services online, through zoom or via phone. Please email facultyadvocate@ithaca.edu to schedule a time. 

POSITION DESCRIPTION:

The Faculty Advocate serves as a confidential, approachable, impartial and neutral listener and resource for faculty members, helping to mediate conflicts, provide feedback, suggest referrals to other resources as needed and foster respectful, inclusive, and ethical behavior and fair process.  The Faculty Advocate listens to the concerns of faculty, facilitates constructive dialogue, and assists in evaluating available options. Additional responsibilities include: 

• offering confidential (with the exceptions of harassment and discrimination and Clery Act crimes) assistance to Ithaca College faculty with informally resolving conflict or other concerns and issues and to improve the campus environment;
• offering guidance to chairs, deans, and the Provost in addressing individual and collective faculty concerns;
•  providing counsel and information to faculty engaged in the tenure and/or promotion process, that can include information about preparation for appeals or responses and more general questions about processes and policies as a neutral resource, and to the various evaluative bodies associated with the tenure and promotion process; 
• providing feedback and mediation regarding employment-related concerns of faculty at all ranks; and
• providing annual independent reports to the Provost, President and Faculty Council regarding all concerns that faculty have (i.e., reports are limited to trends, no identifying information or confidential information is relayed in the reports) and soliciting additional information to address structural concerns if patterns are found and recommendations need to be made institutionally. 

The individual also regularly attends Faculty Council meetings as an ex officio member of Faculty Council.

HOW IT WORKS:

The Faculty Advocate role follows an Alternative Dispute Resolution structure. The process is non-binding and voluntary. It is a confidential process intended to be accessible to all faculty at Ithaca College. 

The Faculty Advocate does not participate in any formal adjudicative or administrative procedure related to concerns brought to their attention. The Faculty Advocate is an informal resource and therefore is not authorized to accept notice or formal complaints nor do they make binding decisions, mandate policies, offer legal advice or formally adjudicate issues for the College. The Faculty Advocate is not authorized to speak on behalf of the College. The Faculty Advocate will not keep any records with the exception of the annual reports. 

The Faculty Advocate offers informal services and does not replace formal processes available to the Ithaca College community.

CONTACT:

Faculty can email facultyadvocate@ithaca.edu to schedule a meeting via zoom or phone. 

Please note: Sending confidential information by email is discouraged as privacy cannot be assured in email communications.