Guide for persons concerned

At UR, you are not alone in facing problems. If you have been affected by discrimination, sexual harassment, or conflict at UR, there are many options available to you for targeted support.

We will advise you:

First, you will have the opportunity for a confidential conversation in which you can talk about your experiences and your concerns. You can ask questions and discuss the next steps with the counselor while remaining anonymous.

The counselors:

• listen to you,
• discuss with you what you can and would like to do, and
• become active on your behalf if necessary: they accompany you to talks, look for individual solutions with you and/or, if necessary, initiate a formal complaints procedure together with you.

The initial contact can be established by you or a person you trust.

A list of the counseling centers from which you can choose can be found here.

In principle, all persons with teaching, management or training functions in their field of work or study are responsible for respectful and appreciative interaction and are available to you as direct contact persons.

How to prepare:

Talking to people around you who understand you and whom you can confide in will help you to express your feelings in words, share experiences, and receive encouragement. Fellow students/colleagues can support you, accompany you to conversations, or corroborate your experiences when you feel unsafe.

It can be difficult to recall important information such as time, names, and even the course of events can be forgotten. Therefore a memory log might be helpful to structure the essential information and to remember important details with certainty:

• Where and when did a situation arise?
• From whom did the discrimination, sexual harassment or sexualized violence originate?
• Briefly describe what happened. Note important statements, essential actions and sequences of actions as precisely as possible and in chronological order.
• Who else was involved and/or can testify to statements? Ask for contact details and ask the people involved to write their own memories of the situation.

You can complain officially:

Depending on the case, a formal grievance procedure may be considered. In a formal procedure, a written, non-anonymous complaint is submitted to the service. The counseling centers will inform you about the procedure and accept your written statement.

At your request, the contact persons of the counseling centers will accompany you during the complaint procedure.