Office of the Ombudsperson

Essentially, anything SAIT related. If they can’t help, they will try to point you in the right direction. If there are agencies external to SAIT that would be more appropriate to talk to, they will give you that information as well.

SAIT employees, students (applicants, current and former), alumni, contractors, volunteers, and parents or legal guardians of minor students.

The short answer is no, unless there is a legal requirement to provide information or in the case of a serious safety concern.

Otherwise, if you don't specifically give the Ombudsperson explicit consent to talk to someone about your concern, they will not tell anyone about your concern or about your conversation.

Although an in-person meeting is an option, it is not a requirement. The Ombudsperson will accommodate you with a telephone or Zoom/MS Teams meeting, if you would prefer. 

When a person comes to the Office of the Ombudsperson, one reason may be because they feel that a process or decision impacting them was not fair.

The Ombudsperson may ask you why you feel a process or decision was unfair. You may not know — you may think something seems unfair or simply doesn’t “feel right.” This is a valid reason to ask for a third-party, like the Ombudsperson, to review your concern.

When you make a complaint to the Ombudsperson that a decision or process was not fair, the Ombudsperson will objectively look at all sides of the issue to determine if the decision, process or policy is fair/unfair. This means they not only considers your perspective, but also the other party’s perspective, as well as any applicable SAIT processes or policies.

As part of her review, the Ombudsperson will consider a number of different questions, including but not limited to:

• Did you understand why the decision was made or in the case of conduct concerns, were you told the case against you?
• Did you have a chance to provide your side of the issue?
• Did the process follow the normal course of events or as required in a policy?
• When a decision is made, were reasons for that decision explained to you?
• Did the decision make sense in light of the evidence and was it in line with any applicable policy requirements?
• Was there any bias or conflict on the part of decision maker?
• Did the decision-making follow a fair process?

If the Ombudsperson determines that you were treated unfairly, they may make a recommendation to resolve the issue. If they feels changes could be made that would improve the experience for all students or for the SAIT community overall, they may also make recommendations for more broad changes to policy/process.

At the end of the process, the outcome of your situation may not change, but you should be able to understand the reason for the outcome or decision. It is important to keep in mind that you may not agree with a decision that a person has made that impacts you, but disagreeing with that decision doesn’t necessarily mean you were treated unfairly.

An Ombudsperson does not have the ability to make anyone at SAIT do something or to change a decision or policy. The Ombudsperson’s role is to consider issues and concerns from an independent, neutral position. If she feels a decision or process was not fair to an individual, she can attempt to informally resolve the situation. She may decide she needs to investigate an issue more formally.The Ombudsperson can also make recommendations for broad changes to policy or process.

The Ombudsperson may decide to act in certain situations, some examples* include:

Example 1:

A prospective student from another province has questions about their admission. The student has sent a number of emails, but no one has responded. It has been a number of weeks and the student needs to speak to someone before signing a lease in Calgary.

With the prospective student’s permission, the Ombudsperson may reach out to someone in the Office of the Registrar (OTR) to explain the situation and finds out the OTR had not received any messages from this student due to a technical issue. The Ombudsperson obtains a name for the student to contact directly and a commitment from the OTR that someone will respond to the student’s questions within two days.

Example 2:

A student has been charged with their second academic misconduct. The student completes the appeal hearing and was suspended. The student then contacts the Ombudsperson after the appeal and explains they did not feel they had a chance to explain their side of the situation. The student believes the information may have changed the outcome of the appeal.

The Ombudsperson will gather the information from the student and with the student’s permission, may contact the other parties to the appeal. In this example, the Ombudsperson determines the appeal hearing was cut short due to an urgent family matter involving one of the parties. The Ombudsperson learns the student was not advised of this issue, but the appeal hearing did end sooner than expected. The Ombudsperson may consider requesting the student be provided with a brief explanation of what occurred and they may request a rehearing of this appeal to allow the student a full and fair opportunity to be heard.

Example 3:

An employee makes a complaint to the Ombudsperson that they accepted a gift card for presenting at a workshop and later learned they should not have done so, but indicates they feel the policy is not clear.

The Ombudsperson will discuss the issue with the employee, review the policy and, with the consent of the employee, may speak to Employee Services to learn further details with respect to this policy. After the review, the Ombudsperson determines the policy explicitly explains that gift cards may not be accepted. In this case, the Ombudsperson would explain this to the employee, but make no further recommendation for resolution or changes to policy.

In this example, if the Ombudsperson determined the policy was not clear or information was lacking that could cause confusion, the Ombudsperson may recommend this section of the policy be amended to improve understanding and clarity for employees.

*Note: these examples are for illustrative purposes only. Your case may be different and may not be handled in the same way.