Ethical Reporting

Issues related to Finance, Human Resources, and workplace safety.

Yes, if reporters choose not to give their names, we will not know who submitted the report. If reporters choose, they can provide their names.

Ethical Reporting is a confidential reporting tool to assist managers and employees to work together to address fraud, abuse, and other misconduct in the workplace.

Offering our employees, parents/students, suppliers, service providers, and other stakeholders a way to report conduct that may be in violation with our stated code of conduct, helps to foster a culture of integrity and compliance and protects our reputation.

Ethical Reporting is designed to enable our employees and other stakeholders to report any issue or instance of misconduct easily and in confidence. And unlike some whistleblower hotlines that simply address incidents of major financial malfeasance, the flexibility of the Ethical Reporting enables us to capture various risks to Middlebury, including:

· Theft

· Accounting irregularities

· Conflict of interest

· Wage/hour violations

· Data breaches

· Financial fraud

· Unsafe working conditions

Yes. All students, staff and faculty are encouraged to use Ethical Reporting to report issues related to Finance, Human Resources, and workplace safety.

‘Ethical Reporting’ is designed for employees to report any violation of our stated Code of Conduct, or other concerns you may have. ‘Ethical Reporting’ is designed for reporting matters of a financial nature, as well as Human Resources related incidents, and issues related to workplace safety.

Harassment and discrimination should be reported using the existing policies and procedures outlined in the College Handbook.

When you observe some behavior that you believe violates our Code of Conduct, we expect you to report it. We recognize that you may not be comfortable reporting the issue in person. It is for such circumstances that we have established Ethical Reporting. We would rather you report anonymously than keep the information to yourself.

We certainly do. You may have initial knowledge of an activity that may be cause for concern. Your reporting can minimize the potential negative impact on the institution and our community.

The Risk Office is designated to receive and coordinate responses to reports related to staff conduct (unless otherwise specified by another policy).

Note that the Chief Risk Officer will refer reports regarding faculty member conduct to the Provost (unless otherwise specified by another policy). The Provost’s Office will consult with the Chief Risk Officer as needed.

A report from home, a neighbor’s computer, or any Internet portal will remain secure and anonymous. An Internet portal never identifies a visitor by screen name.

Ethical Reporting is designed to protect your anonymity. However, if you wish to remain anonymous, you—as a reporting party—need to ensure that the body of the report does not reveal your identity by accident. For example, avoid providing clues to your identity, such as “From my office next to Jan Smith …” or “In my 33 years at Middlebury …”

There is a section in the report for identifying yourself, if you wish.

Middlebury is committed to promoting ethical behavior. Unethical conduct, at any level, ultimately hurts Middlebury and all employees, including you. You only have to consider what happened in recent corporate scandals to see the disastrous effects that a seemingly harmless lapse in ethics can have on an otherwise healthy organization. So if you know of any incidents of misconduct or ethical violations, consider it your duty to yourself and your coworkers to report it.

File a report. Ethical Reporting can help you prepare and file your report so it can be properly understood. We’d rather you report a situation that turns out to be harmless than let possible unethical behavior go unchecked because you weren’t sure.

Employees may choose to submit their report with a college email, or a personal email address for follow-up communication. Employees who identify themselves can request that their report be treated in a confidential manner. Employees may also choose to submit anonymously. In cases where a form is submitted anonymously, any investigation outcomes or follow-up information will not be provided to the submitter. All submissions will be investigated to the extent possible regardless of whether the report was made anonymously, confidentially, or with contact information provided.