Appeal Process
GRIEVANCE POLICY
Policy Statement:
The Lebanese American University believes in providing its employees and students with a fair and efficient process to present, and resolve, grievances arising out of the non-compliance or breach of an approved University Policy or Procedure.
All University constituents are encouraged to seek and obtain answers to questions, or concerns, relating to their involvement with the University, through available procedures.
Regular and effective communications between the University constituents reduces the likelihood of misunderstanding and conflict. The University expects and encourages students, staff, and faculty members to communicate openly, and regularly, so that their interests, and the University’s interests, are best served.
Students, staff, and faculty members are entitled to utilize this Policy if the informal discussions did not result in disposing of the complaint to the satisfaction of the complainant, and provided the complained about matter involves a breach of a University Policy or Procedure.
Definition:
A Grievance is defined as an unresolved issue concerning a breach of a University Policy or Procedure that caused the grievant harm or damage.
This Policy does not apply to matters that are governed by alternative University review through applying other policies such as the Discrimination, Harassment and Sexual Misconduct Prevention Policy, the Personnel Policy - Faculty, the Fraud Policy, and the Code of Ethics etc …
This Policy applies whenever the grievance is not covered by any other existing University Policy.
Retaliation Prohibited:
The University, expressly, and unequivocally, prohibits retaliation against any person who files a grievance or assists a grievant in his/her efforts.
However, it is considered to be a serious misconduct if a grievance was filed and found to include deliberate false statements, and/or misleading and inaccurate facts. Such offense will be subject to the full range of disciplinary sanctions, including termination and dismissal for cause, and suspension.
Reporting Harassment, Assault, and/or Discrimination
Any LAU staff, faculty or student who believes in good faith that they or someone else at LAU has been a victim of discrimination, harassment or any form of sexual misconduct should promptly notify LAU through one of the methods set out below.
The complaint should include information about:
- The conduct
- Where it occurred, and
- Persons involved
- If reporting is made by a person other than the victim involved, that person has to explain his/her knowledge of the conduct in question
The following steps should be taken when filing a complaint:
When a student, a staff member, or a faculty member faces any form of harassment, they should notify (orally or in writing) the Title IX Office, either by emailing titleIX@lau.edu.lb or by calling one of the following numbers:
Beirut campus: +961 1 786 456, ext. 1303
Byblos campus: +961.9 547 254, ext. 1303
For complaints emanating from the New York Academic Center, please send an email to titleIX@lau.edu.lb.
Anonymous Reporting
Anyone can make an anonymous report of conduct prohibited under this policy by contacting the Compliance Hotline at +961 1 786 456, ext. 4444.
LAU will review the complaint, initiate an investigation and take any measure it deems appropriate in response to the notice as temporary or permanent measures. Further, LAU may advise certain staff and faculty with oversight of student well-being that their duties include a requirement to report instances of sexual misconduct relating to students promptly upon receiving such information.
The right to confidentiality shall be strictly adhered to at all stages, in so far as it does not interfere with LAU’s legal obligation to investigate the allegations presented and take proper corrective action(s).
A failure to provide prompt notification or the reporting of information anonymously may hinder LAU’s ability to act on the conduct for which a complaint is made.
The Process of Filing a Complaint
When a complaint is submitted, LAU may request a statement in writing signed by the complainant or the Title IX Director will take note of the complaint and have the complainant sign it in order to proceed with further inquiry, particularly in matters pertaining to employment.
Depending on the type of conduct and the persons affected, the complaint may be referred to an existing LAU procedure for resolution such as the Grievance Policy or the Student Code of Conduct. Further, LAU may establish new procedures as necessary and, if needed, comply with the U.S. Department of Education requirements, in order to investigate the claim.
LAU will promptly investigate all complaints. If the Title IX Director or Coordinator determines that the complaint is credible, he/she shall notify the Office of the General Counsel and together recommend to the President that a formal investigation be opened. Upon the President’s request, the Title IX Director will manage all complaints that warrant investigation. The President can consider engaging other university units as necessary and in accordance with applicable LAU policies.
The President will open a formal investigation by creating (or establishing) an ad-hoc investigating committee. The investigation will be prompt and will allow both the complainant and the responding parties to meet with the committee. The committee may also meet with other relevant individuals. The investigating committee will write up a report for the President based on evidence that includes recommendations for further action. The President will then make the final decision regarding the resolution of the complaint.
Furthermore, the Office of the General Counsel provides advice and direction on the legal aspects of Title IX-related investigations and potential prosecutions. The Office of the General Counsel also conducts Title IX investigations involving Title IX Office staff.
If LAU determines that the claim is substantiated, it will institute disciplinary proceedings against the offending party, which may result in a range of sanctions up to and including termination of University employment or expulsion.
If LAU determines that the complaint was unsubstantiated, the University will take no corrective action.
The formal University decision shall be communicated to all involved parties as approved by the President. Appeals by either party may be initiated as per the applicable LAU policies.
Reinventing Performance Management: How to Do it Right
LAU’s Institute for Human Resources at the Adnan Kassar School of Business hosts a forum on effective strategies for engaging talent
Performance management has been undergoing a significant change in prominent organizations, with leaders becoming more aware of the challenge to engage talent more effectively.
This is particularly the case for several international institutions that were able to redesign their performance management systems and adapt them to more focused and individualized performance management.
Such strategies adopted to best evaluate team performance – and more –were addressed at a forum hosted by LAU’s Institute for Human Resources on the Latest Trends in HR: Reinventing Performance Management on April 4.
Moderated by Dr. Silva Karkoulian, associate professor and director of the institute, the forum featured Deloitte’s Rana Ghandour Salhab and Maya Rafii – Partner, Regional Talent and Communications, and Regional HR Director at Deloitte, respectively – as well as Roy Majdalani, VP for human resources and university services at LAU and Rania Al-Jazairi, first social affairs officer at ESCWA.
Kicking off the event, Dr. Karkoulian recalled the concept of performance management that was introduced some 60 years ago to determine an employee’s wage.
“With time, performance management has been transformed greatly and companies have adopted different methods and techniques,” she explained. “Continuous performance management will be the current focus as more companies embrace a more agile and data-driven approach to helping their people succeed.”
LAU’s Interim Dean of the Adnan Kassar School of Business (AKSOB) Wassim Shahin stressed the importance of turning this new HR concept into reality, illustrating how AKSOB had done so both on the academic and executive training sides.
“This year, we launched a master’s degree in Human Resources Management, and so far, it has proven its success. We are one of the few institutions to offer such a noble program along with our five other graduate programs,” he said. “Not only are we doing so, but we have also decided to reactivate the HR institute.”
Dr. Shahin also placed a great emphasis on the third pillar of LAU’s Strategic Plan (SPIII) – a university without borders – which includes executive education, not only nationally, but globally as well. “Internally, the institutes are playing a great role in developing this type of education,” he said, “but what we are also trying to accomplish is the development of programs outside Lebanon in order to achieve the sans-frontière notion.”
Over the course of the event, the panelists reminded the audience that through inclusion, trust and coaching, all three institutions were reinventing the perception of performance management.
To put its teams at ease and win their trust, Deloitte applies the multifaceted ALL IN strategy, said Ghandour Salhab, which “consists of agile work policies, putting goals for our leaders and focusing on mentoring programs such as Mentor ME.”
The strategy entailed conducting a survey which showed that 60 percent of the leaders thought the company’s performance management system was broken. Delving further, the firm found that two million hours were being spent on performance, Raffii said, which led to the ultimate change of “shifting those two million hours from talking about people to talking to people.”
Back at LAU, said Majdalani, a new unit – Staff Relations and Development – was founded within the HR department, empowering “employees by giving them constructive feedback and helping them manage their performance.” In this manner, employees define their own goals while managers engage with the team by spreading the institution’s vision and mission or communicating on an individual basis.
The ESCWA, on the other hand, placed an action plan that allocated huge resources to work on upgrading their employees’ skills, as “the staff sometimes feel like they’re being replaced by new upcomers on short-term contractual basis,” said Al Jazairi.
Just as important as transparency on where employees fit in the organization’s vision, is the question of accountability, she added. “No one wants to work in a place where you have frequent violations of rules, because this leads to injustice.”