Involvement in the bias response process as a non-reporter

ENGAGING WITH THE BIAS RESPONSE PROCESS AS A NON-REPORTER

It is natural to experience many emotions when learning that you are involved in a bias incident report. It is important to know that the bias response process is developmental and educational; it is not a formal investigation nor punitive process.

It is important to review what the bias response team can do and what they cannot do:

WHEN EVALUATING A BIAS INCIDENT, THE BIAS TEAM CAN...

  • Provide care to those negatively impacted by bias
  • Facilitate restorative processes to mend organizational and intergroup conflict
  • Facilitate education and dialogue
  • Coach managers and leaders
  • Utilize bias response data to inform policy and practice recommendations to mitigate the impact of bias
  • Allow reporters to inform what next steps they wish to undertake, unless it conflicts with mandatory reporting requirements

WHEN EVALUATING A BIAS INCIDENT, THE BIAS INCIDENT RESPONSE TEAM CANNOT...

While the team may advocate policy change, provide care and facilitate learning, the bias response team cannot:

  • Propose or facilitate formal discipline of faculty, staff or students
  • Terminate faculty and staff
  • Expel or formally discipline students
  • Censor or punish people for offensive or repugnant comments that are protected speech
  • Change curriculum
  • Investigate or making findings of fact
  • Replace hard conversations between faculty, staff and students

INVOLVEMENT IN THE RESPONSE PROCESS:

While the response can take many forms, the university’s approach to intervening in bias incidents is shaped by constitutional rights and state and federal law, and is intended to be developmental.

Step 1. Bias incident report is received, evaluated and processed by the BRT.

Step 2. BRT evaluates the incident report and designates a liaison.

At weekly meetings, the BRT evaluates new incident reports. A BRT liaison is identified to follow up with the reporter to:

  • Provide follow-up resources
  • Gather additional information about the reported incident
  • Discuss potential responses

Step 3. BRT develops a response.

The BRT discusses the incident and develops response in collaboration with university partners, and reporters, as appropriate. The response can can take many forms depending on the context and situation of the incident. If you are aware of your involvement with the report, it means that you are the person named in the report or in the supervisory line of individuals named in the report.

When employees are named in a report, consistent with our response protocol, we ask supervisors to hold a voluntary educational conversation with the employee to ascertain their perspective, outline the impact of the incident and discuss whether the narrative reflects outcomes consistent with values promoted within the college or department. These educational conversations can take many forms, depending on the context of the incident and the individuals involved.

Step 4. BRT tracks response progress, and closes the case.

The BRT coordinator will track progress of the response. Once the supervisory line is made aware of the report, and they complete the educational response, the report will be closed.

Engaging in this process can be hard at times, it is natural to experience a range of emotions. Our hope is that you can continue to engage with the bias response process to achieve a positive outcome for all involved.