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Show state SIGNPOST mecomsnq Fril fjj) yy tj ) y editorial Wk to iWdStOCsICo flW3flfel2lfll7,S? by Jeannie Young Well? Who does? Who investigates the investigators? Who looks after the people who look after us? I'm referring to the Ombudsman Committee. I'll be the first to agree that campuses need such an organization as this student grievance review committee, but I'll also be the last to agree that it needs to be run in such a cloak and dagger manner. Why is belonging to the Ombudsman committee like being a member of the secret police? Why does Ombudsman have an outer committee whose members only the Ombudsman chairman knows? Why is attendance of Ombudsman meeting by special invitation only? Why don't the echelons of student government and administration know what this committee does before it's done. Somehow I got a hold of Ombudsman's policy statement which opens with an explanation of what Ombudsman is, the purpose of Ombudsman at Weber State College and two pro cesses of Ombudsman Grievance Procedures. Upon reading the policy I found process two which basically states that any problem existing on campus that nobody has complained a-bout but Ombudsman recognizes, the chairman will bring it before the committee for con sideration. Does that mean everybody on campus is subject to investigation at any time bv Ombudsman? Process two rings of a threat. Back up and consider the possibility of Signpost or any other newspaper with that same potential, that same threat of a "stay on your toes" attitude. News media in some cases are considered Ombudsman but still the media have strong rules concerning libel and defamation of character. Who sets such rules for Ombudsman? Ombudsman at this stage of the game and at this campus can be of tremendous neb and good or it can be a destroying force that polarizes the campus to initiate a "them and us" attitude. Ombudsman is a committee that can work with the college communitv or aeainst it. It can sever, with one quietly handled, misunderstood grievance, all the channels of com munication that administrators and students have been trying to achieve for so lone We need Ombudsman at Weber State College. We need to feel somebody listen and cares and can help. We need a force that can honestly and openly obtain solutions to problems and answers to questions. We need a spokesman for the little guy We sincerely do need these things. But we can't tolerate an alienating bodv We can't house a destructive force funded by our money. We can't acknowledge a f ree-wheelin in vestigative group of interested students. S wneeiing in- Yes we need an Ombudsman whose "role is not to fight political battles, but rather to make the university a better place for everyone to study and learn' , as stated in the doMcv statement and quoted from the NEA Journal. No, we don't need a hell-raising ear evoS group of students looking for Wednesday afternoon fun g" 0king Friday, October 29, 1971 I warn iv |