What should I do in the event of undesirable behaviour?

If you have experienced or witnessed inappropriate behaviour, don’t keep it to yourself. Always try to confide in someone. If the situation allows, you can talk to the person exhibiting the inappropriate behaviour (perhaps with the help of someone else). Sometimes that alone can resolve a lot. It usually works well if you describe the behaviour that is bothering you in concrete terms and explain how it makes you feel. Stay calm and clear, even if the other person starts to defend themselves (at first).

If such a conversation is not feasible or does not lead to a satisfactory outcome for you, please get in touch with the coordinators at the Central Contact and Information Point via this web form. On the web form, please briefly explain what help you need and/or what you wish to report or bring to their attention. One of the coordinators will contact you within five working days so that you can explain your situation (if you want so). Based on your account, the coordinators will advise you on the best place to turn to. You can also raise a concern or make a report anonymously; in that case, simply do not provide a telephone number or email address on the web form.

If you need urgent help, please use the following options:

• Call (050) 363 8050 if your safety is immediately at risk at a UG location; call 112 if you're not on campus or if there is an immediate medical emergency.
• In case of an unwanted sexual experience, contact the Center for Sexual Violence (Centrum voor Seksueel Geweld) directly at 0800 0188.
• Naturally, you can also reach out to your General Practitioner (or the out-of-hours GP service).
• If you're afraid you might harm yourself (or suspect someone else might), call or chat with 113 or 0800-0113, or visit 113.nl.

If you have experienced or are experiencing undesirable behaviour outside the UG, you can contact:

• Groningen City Centre Police Station
• Centre for Sexual Violence
• Victim Support
• Confidential counsellors at student societies
• Advisory Committee on Induction Periods and Incidents (ACII), dealing with inappropriate behaviour during the induction period and within student organisations.

If undesirable behavior outside the RUG affects your work or studies, you can turn to your supervisor or HR-advisor, or to your lecturer, mentor, study advisor, or student counsellor. 

The RUG has appointed three coordinators for the Contact and Information Point:

One of these coordinators will contact you within five working days so that you can explain the situation you described on the online form. In almost all cases, you will then receive immediate advice on who can help you further. It is up to you to decide what to do with the coordinators’ advice. This means that you remain in control of the next steps.

Two weeks after this contact, you will receive an evaluation form. On this form, we ask how you found your experience of contacting the reporting and information centre and whether the referral led to a satisfactory outcome for you.

If you submit a tip-off or report anonymously, you do not provide your name, telephone number or email address on the online form and will therefore not receive a response or an evaluation form.

Privacy & confidentiality
All requests for help, concerns and reports received are recorded. This enables us to identify patterns and trends. Only the coordinators have access to the web forms and the associated personal data and email correspondence.

Only where necessary, and with a view to ensuring the best possible referral, will the coordinators discuss your case with experts within the University of Groningen, for example, professionals in the fields of social safety, integrity, employment law and/or integrated safety. They do so with integrity and care.

Referral options
The coordinators have various referral options. Below you can find more information about what is available for support.

• You can go to your lecturer or mentor. This person does not have a formal role as a confidential advisor. Nevertheless, it may be helpful to get in touch with them first, for example because you know them and feel comfortable talking to them.

• You can contact the Study Advisors from your faculty and/or Student Counsellors from the Student Service Centre (SSC). In their formal role as confidential advisors, they are there to listen and can advise you on any next steps and support available. Study advisers are attached to a degree programme and faculty. Student counsellors are not; they are independent and fall under the Student Service Centre (SSC).

• You can also contact a local confidential advisor. This is an accessible first point of contact within a faculty or department. Acting as a sounding board, this confidential advisor offers a confidential listening ear.

• If your faculty or department does not have a local confidential advisor, or if you would prefer to speak to a confidential advisor outside your faculty or department, you can contact the Confidential Advisors’ Office. The central confidential advisors offer support and can also guide you through the process of lodging a formal complaint. Good to know: the confidential advisor does not mediate, but can organise mediation.

• If you believe there is a structurally unsafe or unhealthy situation, or a systemic fault, the Ombudsperson can help you. She will offer advice and work with you to find possible solutions. Only with your consent can the Ombudsperson mediate, act as an independent facilitator, refer the matter and/or carry out an investigation (or arrange for one to be carried out).

• Talk to your manager about the situation. They can listen to you, think along about solutions, act as a moderator, or raise the issue with the person concerned. If your manager is the person engaging in unacceptable behaviour, talk to their manager.
• If you prefer to talk to someone who is slightly further removed from the situation than your manager, you can also make an appointment with your HR advisor. Your HR advisor can listen, think along, and help you with information on the UG’s policy and its legislation and regulations that may apply to your situation.

• You can also contact a local confidential adviser. This is an accessible first point of contact within a faculty or department. Acting as a sounding board, this confidential adviser offers a confidential listening ear.

• If your faculty or department does not have a local confidential advisor, or if you would prefer to speak to a confidential advisor outside your faculty or department, you can contact the Confidential Advisers’ Office. The central confidential advisors offer support and can also guide you through the process of lodging a formal complaint. Good to know: the confidential advisor does not mediate, but can organise mediation.

• If you believe there is a structurally unsafe or unhealthy situation, or a systemic fault, the Ombudsperson can help you. She will offer advice and work with you to find possible solutions. Only with your consent can the Ombudsperson mediate, act as an independent facilitator, refer the matter and/or carry out an investigation (or arrange for one to be carried out).

• Talk to your manager about the situation. They can listen to you, think along about solutions, act as a moderator, or raise the issue with the person concerned. If your manager is the person engaging in unacceptable behaviour, talk to their manager.

• If you prefer to talk to someone who is slightly further removed from the situation than your manager, you can also make an appointment with your HR advisor. Your HR advisor can listen, think along, and help you with information on the UG’s policy and with legislation and regulations that may apply to your situation.

• PhD candidates can also talk to the Graduate School coordinator. PhD coordinators are often embedded in the research group and have no formal confidentiality task, but it may still be a good idea to talk to them, for example because you know them and contact with them feels safe and familiar. 
• If you work at FSE or UMCG and would like to have a confidential conversation, you can also contact one of the PhD counsellors.

• A number of faculties have a Local Confidential Advisor. This is an accessible first point of contact within a faculty or department. Acting as a sounding board, this confidential adviser offers a confidential listening ear.

• If your faculty or department does not have a local confidential advisor, or if you would prefer to speak to a confidential advisor outside your faculty or department, you can contact the Confidential Advisors’ Office. The central confidential advisors offer support and can also guide you through the process of lodging a formal complaint. Good to know: the confidential advisor does not mediate, but can organise mediation.

• If you believe there is a structurally unsafe or unhealthy situation, or a systemic fault, the Ombudsperson can help you. She will offer advice and work with you to find possible solutions. Only with your consent can the Ombudsperson mediate, act as an independent facilitator, refer the matter and/or carry out an investigation (or arrange for one to be carried out).