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Current Students

Voicing Concerns

How do I voice a concern in HCDE? 

You are always welcome and encouraged to bring forward concerns or questions within the Department of Human Centered Design & Engineering. Department personnel will respect and protect confidentiality (unless there is a risk of immediate danger to yourself or others), and will never participate in or tolerate retaliation. We recommend students, faculty, and staff share their concerns with a trusted individual directly or request an appointment to share their concerns in-person, over the phone, or Zoom. 

For  suggestions of whom to contact first, we recommend meeting with your academic advisor. 

What is “a concern”? 

Concerns might arise in a class, a research group or meeting, a talk, a shared space, a campus event, or an interpersonal exchange. Concerns might relate to any number of topics such as: 

You may have concerns about your own experience or something you witnessed. Both are important. The severity of your concern may change over time. While it is never too early or too late to speak up, we encourage you to share early as this can give us more options to proactively address the situation that is causing concern. You can repeat your concern if the issue persists. And sometimes you might be concerned but you are not sure how to describe it or whom to tell. You can safely talk to our department contacts (or other campus resources) about any concern in order to explore possible next steps.

Learning about concerns, questions, and topics on your mind helps us build a better department and community, especially as the HCDE community may be differently calibrated about what needs an immediate response or department-level response. Someone may reach out to you with follow up questions, but, for certain kinds of concerns, we will very often not be able to share specific information about outcomes, especially when your concern is related to a specific student or employee. Additionally, not every concern will result in an action from the department, and when it does not, we can work with you to identify techniques and resources that you can apply to address the concern. 

Whom can I contact? 

  1. If you feel comfortable and safe, address concerns informally through thoughtful dialogue with the individual(s) closest to the situation.
    Usually this means contacting your course instructor, teaching assistant, or academic adviser. Explain your concerns or questions and ask for clarification and assistance. When appropriate, be willing to offer suggestions on an outcome that would most help you. If you meet in person to express a concern, you can always bring someone with you for support.
     
  2. If you are not comfortable contacting someone involved in the issue or if you tried and were not comfortable with the outcome, you always have additional options such as:

Still unsure of whom to talk with? Here are some suggestions: 

What if…

Suggested Contacts

I have non-emergency safety concerns about equipment or facilities?

You can alert any department employee about safety concerns, including:

If your concern is about a building other than Sieg, you can look up the building coordinator here. Facilities requests can be submitted using the facilities request tool.

To report a workplace injury, illness, exposure, fire, property damage, or near-miss event, please submit a report through the Online Accident Reporting System (OARS) within 24 hours. Other non-emergency incidents on UW property may be reported through the Environmental Health & Safety reporting tool.

I have concerns involving a syllabus, my grade, or other class activities?

Please see detailed guidance on HCDE Student Rights, Policies, and Procedures as well as College of Engineering guidance regarding grading grievances.

I have concerns involving student academic misconduct or dishonesty?

I have concerns involving research misconduct?

I have other concerns involving a fellow student?

I have concerns involving a department instructor?
(including temporary faculty and graduate student instructors)

I have concerns involving talks or other department events?

I have concerns involving a staff member?

I have a general interest in the life of the department and I want to get involved?

Contact the Graduate Student Association or Undergraduate Student Association officers for information about activities and meetings where you can become involved.

If you are external to the department, check out our events calendar, opportunities to sponsor student projects, and reach out to HCDE’s Outreach & Strategic Partnerships Manager Melissa Ewing with any questions.

What happens with Course Evaluation forms? 

Course evaluation forms are primarily meant to provide feedback to your instructor(s) about the learning experience in a specific class. 

The Department Chair will receive some summary data analysis from these evaluations but typically does not receive the written student comments. Comments are only provided to the instructor. If you wish to provide specific feedback or express a concern to the Department Chair, please contact the Chair Julie Kientz directly. 

Campus-wide Resources 

The University has additional resources to address concerns that are not or cannot be addressed at the department level. 

University Ombud 
The Office of the Ombud serves the University of Washington community by providing collaborative and confidential support services for preventing, managing, and resolving conflict at this university. 

Sexual Misconduct, Violence, and Harassment 
The UW Office of Title IX Coordinator provides a full array of resources, support, and referrals for anyone with concerns related to sexual misconduct including discrimination based on sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender expression, pregnant or parenting status, and LGBTQ identity. 

LiveWell Confidential Advocacy 
The LiveWell Confidential Advocates provides a safe and confidential space to help students, faculty and staff identify what they want or need after an incident of sexual assault, relationship violence or stalking has occurred. 

Student Conduct and “Report It” 
The UW Office of Community Standards & Student Conduct (CSSC) is responsible for maintaining and implementing the UW Student Conduct Code. CSSC has an online “Report It” tool to make reporting incidents of student misconduct easy for faculty, staff, and students. 

Employee* Conduct and Bias 
The University maintains various policies for Resolution of Complaints against University Employees to help students who have concerns about the behavior of University employees. This includes the online Reporting System for Incidences of Bias and the Civil Rights Investigation Office (CRIO).  
*Employees include faculty, staff, and student employees. 

Student Disability Support & Accommodations 
UW Disability Resources for Students (DRS) partners with students with disabilities to request accommodations that grant access to educational opportunities. Students can register with DRS to request academic accommodations. 

Employee Disability Support & Accommodations 
The UW Disability Services Office (DSO) partners with employees to explore reasonable accommodations for employees (including student employees) and job applicants with medical conditions or disabilities. 

Physical Safety and Accident Reporting 
The University’s Office of Environmental Health & Safety (EHS) is responsible for all aspects of physical safety associated with university activities and operations. EHS maintains an Online Accident Reporting System (OARS) to track work-related problems so preventative measures can be implemented. This includes near misses, hazardous conditions, and accidents or injuries involving employees, students, UW volunteers working on or off campus, or members of the public visiting campus. After reporting the incident to an appropriate supervisor, always make sure to submit an OARS report.