"I am proud that our faculty will be the first at CTU to have its own ombudsman. From this new faculty position, we hope to resolve acute problems or conflicts and provide feedback to the administration on more general needs within the academic community. We have taken a clear and concrete step towards cultivating the faculty environment," says Dean Dalibor Hlaváček.
The main motivation was to build a learning and working environment that is welcoming, fair, safe and respectful. In many foreign (and a few domestic) universities, the role of ombudsman* is a tried and tested practice that can help mutual understanding and communication of needs within the institution.
"At CTU FA, the ombudsperson will have a mainly mediating and advisory role. She should be available to both students and employees who can turn to her. We also hope that the ombudsman's insight will enable her to identify the needs and most common problems of people at the faculty, and that she will participate in proposing functional and conceptual solutions," says Klára Brůhová from the Equal Opportunities Commission.
Dita Jahodová has set among her goals the cultivation of debate on the prevention of negative phenomena such as bullying, abuse of power, sexual harassment, as well as overwork and burnout. She also wants to work towards introducing measures that facilitate the reconciliation of personal, working and study life.
"I would also like to develop and deepen cooperation with the FA Equal Opportunities Commission and CIPS CTU counselling centres. At the same time, I would like to establish cooperation with other ombudsmen and ombudswomen from DAMU, FAMU, Faculty of Arts of Charles University and Faculty of Law of Charles University. As part of prevention, I will participate in the organisation and implementation of seminars and workshops," adds the new ombudsman.
Mgr. Dita Jahodová studied gender studies at Faculty of Humanities, Charles University. Until 2018 she worked as an internal PhD student at the Department of Sociology at Faculty of Social Studies of MU, taught externally at the Department of Gender Studies at FHS UK and worked as a researcher at the Centre for Longevity and Long-Term Care Studies at FHS UK. She has worked on LGBTIQ issues, intersectionality of gender and ethnicity in education and topics related to care, stigma and social exclusion.
She is a founding member of the Gender Expert Chamber of the Czech Republic and participated in the creation of the Gender Audit Standard. She currently works at Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs of the Czech Republic as an expert on gender pay equity analysis and as an independent consultant. She has experience in conducting gender audits in the academic environment as well as with private and public employers.