Fall 2019 Edition
Alumni & Friends Magazine
I鈥檓 listening. Let鈥檚 talk.
Ombudsperson Mac Stricklen serves as a deep listener, a sounding board, and a creative problem solver.
By Mary Reed, BSJ 鈥90, MA 鈥93 | October 20, 2019
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Have you ever wondered exactly what a university ombudsperson does?
鈥淚t starts with a lot of listening,鈥 says Ohio University Ombudsperson Mac Stricklen, who half-jokingly refers to the ombuds as 鈥渢he official office of 鈥業 wasn鈥檛 sure where to go with this.鈥欌 A student feels that a professor has treated them unfairly; a faculty member has concerns about promotion and tenure; office staff are not getting along with one another; an alumnus/na needs help getting a transcript released.
Once other official avenues have been exhausted, problems like these might end up in the Ombuds office because the ombuds exists to make sure every member of the university community receives fair and equitable treatment.
鈥淚鈥檓 the mender and maintainer of relationships,鈥 says Stricklen, BS 鈥95, MED 鈥97, noting that it is often a relationship issue that is central to the problem he鈥檚 been approached to consider. 鈥淎lmost everything someone brings me鈥攅ven if it鈥檚 a technological or procedural thing鈥攐ften comes down to a relationship that is not working the way one or both think (it should be) working.鈥
Ohio University Ombudsman Mac Stricklen, BS 鈥95, MED 鈥97, mediates and repairs relationships across the University community. Photo by Ellee Achten, BSJ 鈥14, MA 鈥17
Stricklen points to the paradox of the Golden Rule: Often we do treat others as we would like to be treated, but often that is not necessarily how they want to be treated. In service to untangling this paradox, Stricklen serves as a deep listener, a sounding board, and a creative problem solver who approaches an issue not through the lens of evaluating one鈥檚 performance evaluation, but through the lens of conflict resolution.
鈥淵ou can鈥檛 be an advocate for the person or an advocate for the institution, but you can be an advocate for fairness,鈥 he says.
鈥淢ac is amazing. He is such a good listener,鈥 says College of Fine Arts Dean Matthew Shaftel. He appreciates the ombuds鈥檚 role as a neutral third party, a person who is neither co-worker nor boss. 鈥淗e makes all the people in the room feel validated and listened to.鈥 Shaftel says he readily relies on the ombuds if a professional conflict in his college is exhibiting a strong emotional component. 鈥淭here are two dialogues,鈥 Shaftel says. 鈥淭here鈥檚 the surface one and there鈥檚 the emotional one. Mac is鈥valuating the emotional one.鈥
In the end, many conflicts that employ the ombuds鈥檚 services are resolved without appealing to legal or human resource professionals, saving time and bandwidth. 鈥淥ften what (people) are asking me to do is double check the fairness,鈥 Stricklen says. 鈥淭he good news is that I almost always find it.鈥
Illustration by Andrea Ucini
