Music Department Graduate Student Complaints Process

The Music Department at UCSB strives to be a place where students feel safe and supported in pursuing their educational goals and where they can voice their needs, express their concerns, and offer suggestions for improvement with people whom they trust and feel comfortable. There can be a wide range of dissatisfying scenarios in the music department or at UCSB, about which people may wish to voice concerns, and this procedure hopes to provide you with the resources to support you if you wish to voice and resolve a complaint. Recognizing that there are a broad spectrum of complaints and grievances, this page summarizes in one place the following:

Internal Avenues

Options for Voicing Complaints within the Music Department

An outline of the Music Department’s procedures for dealing with a common issue in many workplaces: handling and seeking to resolve interpersonal difficulties. These steps are designed to help you raise issues with department members whom you trust, and find a solution that is expedient, effective, and allows you to continue doing your best work as a graduate student at UCSB.

External Avenues

Filing a Formal Complaint or Labor Grievance with a Campus Office

An overview of the offices on campus where you can report a formal complaint or labor grievance, particularly if the issue concerns violations of your labor contract or an issue that has not been resolved at the department level.

Further Resources

Information about policies and resources on campus that can provide you with support for your needs as graduate students. This includes links to policies that govern faculty, student, and staff conduct, so that you know your rights as both students and employees, as well as services to support your mental and physical wellbeing while at UCSB.

The goal of resolving a complaint is to restore—and potentially improve—a working relationship and/or work environment, so that you can do your best work as students, TAs, and citizens of the university. To this end, you will want to consider the various options outlined in this document as you decide on which path feels most comfortable for you, and which outlet provides you with the greatest likelihood of a long-term resolution. In all difficult scenarios, it is important that you feel supported by people you trust and that you take care of your emotional and physical wellbeing. We hope that in outlining a procedure for resolving interpersonal complaints within the Music Department that affected parties can work to restore trust in the aftermath of a complaint, and that students feel like they have an outlet for voicing and resolving their concerns so that they can complete their degrees in a safe work environment.

The purpose of this department-specific guide is to help illustrate the diversity of problem-solving options and resources available to you, but not to limit your agency or access to resources in any way. While we have tried to provide a comprehensive overview, you might decide to utilize different resources than the ones presented here, or in a different order than we have presented here.

These policies and resources are available in this downloadable pdf.

Confidential Offices on Campus

Handling difficult scenarios in the context of working and learning, particularly where power dynamics between faculty and students are involved, is stressful. It is important that you have support as you seek to resolve the issues at hand and create a better working environment to suit your needs. There are several offices on campus which are designated safe spaces—they are not subject to mandatory reporting, and you can speak with a member of staff confidentially. These are:

Campus Advocacy, Resources, and Education (CARE): If you are wanting to discuss incidences of sexual misconduct or other forms of interpersonal violence in a confidential setting, you may contact CARE at 805-893-4613. Unlike faculty and staff in the music department, staff at CARE are not subject to mandatory reporting of sexual violence or assault to the Title IX office.
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS): If you find that your complaint is causing you mental distress, CAPS offers short and single therapy sessions, as well as referrals for ongoing therapy. They also offer a crisis hotline: you can submit a referral for yourself, or for others in need. CAPS is available 24/7 at 805-893-4411.
Office of the Ombuds: The Office of the Ombuds a provides confidential consultation services to faculty, staff, students, parents, or anyone else with a campus-related concern. The Ombuds addresses workplace issues, interpersonal conflict, academic concerns, policy questions, and many other problems, whether as a first step, last resort, or at any point along the way.