Conflict is a part of life in any healthy community. Conflict may arise whenever individuals work closely with each other. This may result from philosophical disagreements, personality differences, habitual behaviors, miscommunication, misunderstanding, or willful intent to promote one’s own agendas with insufficient regard to the well-being of others. When handled poorly, conflicts can create exclusion, harm, and violence; when handled well, they can produce growth, safety, and healthy community life.
Grievances, for purposes of this document, are a specific, and potentially more serious, kind of dispute. They may arise from inadequate or missing institutional policies, the misapplication of policies, or the failure to apply policies, which may result in discriminatory or harmful outcomes.
Eastern Mennonite University is committed to maximizing the positive energy of conflict while minimizing its negative consequences. To this end, we strive to create a community of conflict-competent persons living and working in systems that promote repair of harms and restoration of relationships as a preferred response to conflict.
At EMU, the first approach to any conflict or grievance should be non-adversarial, undertaken with careful attention to fostering understanding and promoting problem solving. Our hope is that the majority of conflicts or grievances can be resolved through an informal process of conflict resolution. Nonetheless, individuals have the right to request a formal process at any time. In some instances, especially for particular kinds of grievances (for example, sexual harassment or misconduct), more formal processes may be necessary and appropriate as the first response.
The following informal and formal procedures are applicable to all students, faculty and staff of Eastern Mennonite University as well as applicants for faculty, staff or student status. These procedures are intended to comply with the requirements of Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 and the general employee grievance policy of Eastern Mennonite University. These procedures are subject to amendment and/or pre-emption by applicable law to the extent required to achieve compliance with existing or future regulations, statutes or court decisions and nothing herein is intended to deny or limit any person’s right to any remedy under any state or federal law now or hereafter in effect. Furthermore, nothing contained in this document should be construed as legal advice. To the extent that another policy in the EMU handbook provides a specific process or procedure to be used in response to a conflict, the specific process or procedure found in the other policy will control. Persons are advised to seek legal counsel should they have specific legal questions or concerns.
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While the judicial and other external enforcement systems generally prefer that the aggrieved party exhaust internal grievance procedures where possible, aggrieved or alleged offender parties have the right to and may choose to use external processes to resolve their grievances. Parties may contact the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, or the United States Department of Education Office for Civil Rights (OCR). The aggrieved party should note that the statute of limitations for discrimination charges is typically 180 days from the date of the discriminatory event, or, for the OCR, 60 days after the conclusion of internal procedures, although that period may be extended extended by Virginia and Federal law in some cases of alleged employment discrimination.
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An aggrieved party may bring a complaint to the appropriate complaint coordinator by means of the formal grievance form, including a written report of the alleged incident(s). EMU grievance procedures are designed to be as responsive as possible to grievances that might arise within the university community and to be sensitive to the needs of both parties. The procedures provide both for mediation and/or for a hearing with a committee. Mediation is EMU’s preferred approach in most cases where the grievance process is necessary. However, use of the mediation process is purely voluntary and can be terminated at any time by either of the parties.
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