What reporting channels are at Olds College of Agriculture & Technology?
We encourage employees to report workplace concerns through normal channels (i.e. your Supervisor or your HR Business Partner). Students may report their concerns through normal channels (e.g. a member of the Student Conduct Team or trusted staff within Health and Wellness, Residence Services, or Office of the Registrar). Should you prefer a more confidential approach, or are uncomfortable with regular channels, ConfidenceLine can be used as another alternative.
How can I access ConfidenceLine to make a report?
ConfidenceLine is available by telephone 24 hours a day, seven days a week, at 1.800.661.9675 or go to ConfidenceLine to submit a web report.
Why is Olds College of Agriculture & Technology using this service?
Olds College of Agriculture & Technology believes in creating a safe and healthy environment to learn and work. Olds College chose this service because it provides members of the campus community with access to an independent, third-party reporting mechanism that maintains confidentiality and provides the security of anonymity without fear of personal or professional repercussions.
How secure is the information gathered by ConfidenceLine?
All ConfidenceLine data is stored in Canada in a secure facility that meets all federal and provincial privacy legislation and is not subject to provisions of the U.S. Patriot Act.
Who can make reports through ConfidenceLine?
Students, staff, faculty and campus community members can report through ConfidenceLine.
Who does my report go to at Olds College of Agriculture & Technology?
Your report will be directed to the Designated Officer at Olds College:
- For employee claims - Mara-Lee Moroz, Chief People and Culture Officer
- For student claims - Dillon Andrus-Dobbs, Registrar and Director of Student Services
If the claim is about the Vice President, Student Experience the claim would still be forwarded to the Chief People and Culture Officer. If the claim is about the Chief People and Culture Officer, the claim would be sent directly to the President. If the claim is about the President, the claim would be sent directly to the Chair of our Board of Governors.
How is my anonymity preserved when I contact ConfidenceLine?
ConfidenceLine allows individuals to report wrongdoing without the requirement to provide their name, contact information or any information that may lead to their identity. You will be provided with a User ID number.
It may at times be more effective, for follow-up purposes, to have the name of the reporting party, and individuals will be given an opportunity to disclose their identity. However, the individual can always choose to remain anonymous. ConfidenceLine and the College will not trace or track the phone numbers of the reporting party.
What should I expect when I make a report using ConfidenceLine?
Your call will be answered by a trained ConfidenceLine agent, who will ask questions and create an online report file to record information about the wrongdoing.
You will be asked for specific information relating to the wrongdoing, such as:
- The school name you are calling about
- The location, time(s) and date(s) of the incident(s)
- Names and titles of individuals involved and/or witnesses
- Information on whether you have made previous reports about the wrongdoing
The ConfidenceLine agent will assign you a User ID, which you will need, for any future communication with ConfidenceLine about your report. Be sure to record this User ID and keep it in a safe location as the User ID is what ConfidenceLine uses to retrieve your report.
Alternatively, you can also submit your report directly through their website. The same specific information noted above will be asked in a form format. You will also be provided with a User ID which you will need to remember in order to access updates on your submission.
What happens after I make a report?
Once you have made your report, ConfidenceLine will summarize it and forward it to the Protected Disclosure Advisor who will contact ConfidenceLine within five business days to acknowledge receipt of the report. The Protected Disclosure Advisor will ensure the wrongdoing is dealt with as set out in the Procedure for Protected Disclosure.
Can I follow up on my report?
The ConfidenceLine agent will assign you a User ID, which you will need, for any future communication with ConfidenceLine about your report. Be sure to record this User ID and keep it in a safe location as the User ID is what ConfidenceLine uses to retrieve your report.
You can choose to call ConfidenceLine again, or Review/Update Your Existing Report on ConfidenceLine to see if any additional information or clarification is needed.
What if I am the person who is the subject of the investigation?
If you are the subject of the disclosure, you will be given an opportunity to respond in accordance with the Procedure for Protected Disclosure.
How do I know that ConfidenceLine is 100% Confidential?
If a report is made via an OldsCollege email address, because IT has access to Gmail via Google Vault, they could technically be able to determine if a submission was made. Confidence Line does not provide any information in their email notification, other than there is an update viewable in the ConfidenceLine Platform. Note that Google Vault is strictly restricted. Google Vault records every action, every search in an audit log that cannot be erased. Thus, any search inside Google Vault is identifiable. In that case, IT would require executive approval to do some searching in our Google admin backend. To Mitigate any risk of identification, however low it may be, users are encouraged to use a personal email account.
IT might be able to access logs of a user on campus visiting an external site if IT dug deep into firewall logs, but it would not provide detailed information whether someone submitted something, or only visited their site. It would only show traffic from Olds College to their website. That is all that it would show. Those firewall logs would NEVER show any content. In addition, has no access to the 3rd party IT infrastructure to search their logs.
Can someone ask IT to dig deep into firewall logs to determine if a user accessed a website? If so, what approvals are necessary OR is that a contravention of any Policy?
This is technically somewhat possible, but highly unlikely to occur. There are firewall logs of what sites are visited and often that information is not very valuable (as it only shows an IP address and not a site name (e.g. Facebook). It is important to note that firewall logs are only IP addresses and not names, and it would take a significant effort to correlate IP addresses to actual sites or users.
This kind of request is very very rare. Over the past 15 years, IT has had one or two requests like this. If this is a request regarding a staff or faculty, then IT would require approval from HR. We simply do not follow a request from a supervisor, manager. There has not been a request for student internet usage that IT recalls, and no scenario where the College would request this.
