The University Grievance Officer (UGO) is an independent university official who assists in the resolution of disputes between faculty members or administrative professionals and their supervisors or other administrators.

The UGO is responsible for administering Section K of the Academic Faculty & Administrative Professional Manual, which specifies the process for addressing grievable actions that faculty members or administrative professionals believe are unfair, unreasonable, arbitrary, and/or capricious.

The UGO is also responsible for administering Section E.15 of the Academic & Administrative Professional Manual, which specifies the process for pursuing disciplinary action against tenured faculty members.

The UGO is also responsible for administering Sections E.11, E.16, and E.17 of the Academic & Administrative Professional Manual, which specify processes for appealing recommendations for termination or non-renewal of tenure-track or contract faculty appointments. 

The UGO assists faculty members and administrative professionals by:

• providing information and consultation
• discussing options and making referrals
• assisting with mediation
• coordinating formal grievance hearings conducted by the members of the University Grievance Panel.

Description of the Section K Process

The Grievance Process managed by the University Grievance
Officer (UGO) is for faculty members and administrative professionals
only.  State Classified staff use a
separate process at the state level that is managed by Human Resources.

Grievances are filed against a supervisor for an action they
have taken that the employee feels is unfair, unreasonable, arbitrary, and/or capricious.  The supervisor can be anyone who is able to affect the terms and/or conditions of the employee’s employment; it does not have to be the direct supervisor.  The goal of a grievance is to undo the action taken.

 

Discrimination and retaliation are not grounds for a
grievance.  However, if retaliation is through an action that is unfair, unreasonable, arbitrary, and/or capricious, then the action can be grieved on that basis.  Discrimination is handled by the Office of Equal Opportunity, not through the grievance process.

 

An employee cannot grieve a general policy or a negative work
climate; only an action can be grieved.  Also, an employee cannot file a grievance against a coworker, only
against a supervisor.

 

Termination is not grievable. 
The termination process is different for different employee types, but those processes incorporate their own procedures rather than allowing
termination to be grieved.  Only the CSU President can terminate an employee.  Lower administrators can only recommend termination to the President.  Although termination is not grievable, the UGO can provide information and advice with regard to navigating the termination process.

 

Common examples of grievances are annual performance reviews,
annual salary adjustments, denial of promotion and/or tenure, unreasonable workload, and letters of reprimand.

 

 

 

In order to file a grievance, the employee must contact the
UGO within 20 working days of becoming aware of the action being grieved.  They do not need to file a formal grievance within 20 working days, but they do need to contact the UGO within this time frame to initiate the Section K process.

 

Discussions with the UGO are generally confidential.  However, the UGO is an office of report, so the
UGO does have to report some things, such as sexual harassment or a situation where someone is in danger.

 

The University Ombuds is not an office of report, so they can
provide more confidentiality than the UGO can.

 

However, the UGO can keep most things confidential.  In those cases, the UGO won’t discuss a case
with anyone without the authorization of the employee.

 

Many people come to the UGO for advice and to discuss options,
but they never pursue the matter further with the UGO.

 

If an employee does want the UGO to discuss their case with
others, such as in an attempt to resolve the situation informally, they will need to give the UGO permission to have such discussions with others.

 

 

 

If an employee does decide to pursue the matter, the first
step is for the UGO to attempt to reach an informal resolution of the conflict through mediation.

 

In some cases, this can be done even if the matter is not
technically grievable.

 

More often than not, mediation does lead to an informal
resolution of the matter.

 

It is important to note that the UGO is not an advocate for
the employee.  Instead, the UGO manages the Section K process and tries to reach a reasonable resolution to the
conflict.

 

The UGO will advise the employee to the best of their
ability, but they will also advise the supervisor to the best of their ability.

 

 

 

If an informal resolution cannot be reached, then the
employee can decide to pursue a formal grievance hearing, but only if the matter is technically grievable.

 

A formal hearing is a more aggressive, so there are not many
hearings each year.

 

For a formal hearing, a hearing committee of five persons is
selected from the grievance panel.  For a faculty member, these five people are faculty, and, for an administrative professional, these five people are administrative professionals.

 

During a hearing, both sides can testify to present their
arguments, and they can call witnesses.  Both sides get to questions anyone who testifies.

 

A hearing often takes a full day, but sometimes a half day is
sufficient, and, in rare cases, a second day is needed.

 

After the hearing, the hearing committee prepares a
report.  The official finding of the hearing committee is whether or not the supervisor was unfair, unreasonable,
arbitrary, and/or capricious.  If that is the finding, then the hearing committee can recommend appropriate remedies, but such a recommendation is not part of the official finding.

 

The hearing committee cannot substitute its own judgement in
place of the judgement of the supervisor (i.e., it cannot say: “If I were the supervisor, I would have done something different.”).  It can only decide whether or not the supervisor was unfair, unreasonable, arbitrary, and/or capricious.

 

In the last decade, the hearing committee has found for the
grievant about half of the time and for the supervisor about half of the time. 

 

The report of the hearing committee goes to the Provost, and
the Provost forwards it to the President with their own recommendation.  The President then makes a final decision.

 

The expectation is that the finding of the hearing committee
will be upheld unless the President decides that the hearing committee was unfair, unreasonable, arbitrary, and/or capricious.

 

In the last decade, the President has always upheld the
finding of the hearing committee, but this is not required.

Additional Resources for Conflict Resolution

• Conflict Resolution for Employees

Academic Faculty & Administrative Professional Manual

Section K: Resolution of 
Disputes

Section E.15: Disciplinary Action for Tenured Faculty

Section E.11: Appeal of Early Termination of Contract Faculty Appointments