UNC Biomedical Research Environment Reporting Site

What constitutes mistreatment?
Briefly, mistreatment can include insulting, belittling, threatening, and attacking speech, retaliation, and other behaviors (a longer list of examples can be found on the reporting site). We also detail our expectations of community standards on our website: https://bbsp.unc.edu/expectations/. These behaviors will not be tolerated by students, postdocs, employees, or faculty. UNC is committed to fostering positive, productive and safe working and learning environments free from any of the above behaviors.

How does the process work?
Each report is assigned to a staff member in the Office of Graduate Education (for students) or the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (for postdocs). Human Resources and the Equal Opportunities and Compliance offices are first consulted to see if they will be involved based on the details of the report. If the reporter identifies themselves, they will be contacted for more information and to discuss the actions they are hoping to see at that time (including potentially taking no action). Depending on the reporter’s preferences or the details in an anonymous report, we may contact the other individuals identified in the report to talk about the situation and our recommendations for change.

Should I report anonymously or not?
The reporting site is hosted by a third-party vendor, EthicsPoint, to allow you to make reports anonymously. Unless you identify yourself, your identity will not be disclosed to the University. Should you choose to identify yourself, the University will keep your identity private; information will only be shared with others if allowed by law and University Policies.

Why should I report an issue?
The School of Medicine encourages all members of the research community to report incidents of mistreatment or concerning interactions because we want to have a positive and supportive workplace. Even if you don’t want action taken at that time, or if you are unsure if what you experienced/witnessed qualifies as mistreatment, we still encourage you to report it – when in doubt, report. Reports create an official record that can support future action if other incidents are reported, even if no immediate action is taken. 

Are there other resources available? 
UNC has additional reporting mechanisms for different types of situations (ex. research misconduct), and we maintain a list of them here: https://bbsp.unc.edu/mistreatment-safety/. If you are dealing with an interpersonal conflict with someone else at UNC, we also provide guidance on the different people and offices who can help here: https://bbsp.unc.edu/current-students/conflict-resolution/.