Your first step is to contact your academic advisor to assist you in answering your question or resolving the concern. Your academic advisors are your advocates for addressing any matter involving faculty, staff or other students. When the academic advisors have exhausted their efforts to resolve matters at that level, they may involve other staff leaders within your Program Office or with the program’s faculty leadership.

In rare instances, for example in the case of a third level appeal, matters will then involve the assistant dean of student affairs and/or the associate dean of academic programs. We recommend that you begin your conversation at the advisor and program level.

Steps you should follow

In the event that you feel you have experienced discrimination, harassment or bullying, or have been treated in an unprofessional manner, please escalate your concern to the person next in line, as illustrated above. Should you feel that you have encountered bias, you can also submit a bias incident report to the university. All incidents of bias, hate crimes, and hate incidents are considered a serious breach of our community expectations and need to be reported to allow appropriate investigation and response.

If ever you have something to say and you want to be anonymous, or you haven’t found satisfaction with any of the team members at USC Rossier, there is another way to have your voice heard and your concern addressed. The Office of Professionalism and Ethics offers the site report.usc.edu,  and we encourage you to make note in case you ever need to connect. You can review the reporting options here: https://report.usc.edu/how-to-report/

In handling any communication with school personnel, you are required to adhere to the student and professional conduct guidelines outlined in your program’s handbook or guidebook, to USC’s Principles of Community, and to the policies of USC Student Handbook .

Next Steps: