Office of the University Ombudsperson

Guidelines for Advising and Mentoring Graduate Students

The Graduate School has developed “Guidelines for Graduate Student Mentoring and Advising”. (.pdf) Please reach out to our office if you have concerns related to your treatment under these guidelines to discuss options.

Academic Bullying

Academic bullying is bullying that takes place in institutions of higher education. It can take on various forms, including:

Threats to professional status – including belittling opinions, public professional humiliation, accusations regarding lack of effort, intimidating use of discipline or competence procedures;

• Threats to personal standing – including undermining personal integrity, destructive innuendo and sarcasm, persistent teasing, name calling, insults, intimidation;
• Isolation – including preventing access to opportunities, physical or social isolation, withholding necessary information, keeping the target out of the loop;
• Overwork – including undue pressure, impossible deadlines, and unnecessary disruptions;
• Destabilisation – including failure to acknowledge good work, allocation of meaningless tasks, removal of responsibility, repeated reminders of blunders, setting target up to fail, and shifting goal posts without telling the target.

If I am a target of Academic Bullying, what can I do?

If you are a target, there are steps that you can take:

• Know your support resources.
• Seek out allies.
• Speak up.
• Document your experiences.
• Find outlets to reduce stress.
• Expand your professional network.
• Build identity outside of work/academia.
• Contact the Office of the University Ombudsperson for guidance.

What is an Active Bystander and how can I be one?

If you witness academic bullying, there are some actions you can take to intervene. Not all of these may be useful in the moment, but you may use these strategies as you see fit.

• Acknowledge that you are witnessing behavior that qualifies as bullying.
• Ask the target if they would like assistance.
• Shut down bullying behaviors in group situations.
• Reach out to the target of bullying behavior.
• If appropriate, speak to the aggressor in a private about their behavior.
• Learn the resources for support available to you and the target of bullying.
• Contact the Office of the University Ombudsperson for guidance.

For more information on Workplace Bullying visit Toward A Respectful Workplace