After sitting vacant since 2009 due to a hiring freeze, the faculty ombudsperson position has been filled, according to an email sent to the faculty Friday afternoon. Ruth Rosenberg, currently director of student mediation in the Office of Student Citizenship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, will assume the role Feb. 22.
The ombudsperson search committee selected Rosenberg from a pool of 65 applicants, many of whom were lawyers. A number of University-affiliated individuals also applied, said Harold Roth, chair of the search committee and professor of religious studies.
But it was Rosenberg's "vision for what the ombudsperson position should be," as well has her experience as a trained mediator that led to their hiring decision, Roth said.
As the campus ombudsperson, Rosenberg will serve as a mediator for faculty and post doctorates. "Often conflicts arise just because of lack of good communication," Roth said. "An ombudsperson serves as a resource to whom one or both aggrieved parties can go to talk in confidence about what the problem is."
The addition of an ombudsperson to the faculty will help alleviate tensions within the University, Roth added.
Rosenberg previously served as special assistant to the dean of biology and medicine at Brown before leaving for MIT in 2007. While at MIT, she held mediation-related workshops and created an active bystander program, which helps train individuals how to act in situations that require intervention, such as "colleagues treating colleagues unfairly," Roth said.
Rosenberg has a bachelor's degree from Smith College and a law degree from the University of Connecticut School of Law, according to the email sent to faculty.
Rosenberg said she has been interested in becoming an ombudsperson for some time. "For me, it combines all kinds of skills and experience that I find interesting," she said. "I like to be able to work with people in conflict and individually."
She added that she is attracted to Brown's unique university-college atmosphere. It "still retains that kind of community feeling, but with a high caliber university," she said.
Before Rosenberg's appointment, Brown remained the only Ivy League university without an ombudsperson. "Brown is a little bit behind the times in hiring and establishing an ombuds position," Roth said, adding that the other Ivy League schools have full-time ombudsperson positions. Rosenberg will hold a half-time position for the next three years.
Roth said he hopes there will be room to expand the position in the future. Such expansion might include making the position permanent, full-time or even available to other community members such as students and staff, he said.
Rosenberg's new role will "help create an atmosphere of cooperation and fairness," Roth said. "We will flourish as teachers and scholars in atmospheres in which we feel that there's a relatively level playing field and that things are being done fairly."
