Positive social environment at UCT Prague

Violation of personal dignity in interpersonal relationships, i.e. all forms of behaviour that violate human dignity, including discrimination, aggression, bullying, intimidation, sexual violence, or other forms of oppression.

You can report/consult about situations that occurred during educational, cultural, or other UCT Prague activities that you, as UCT Prague students or employees, perceive as contradicting UCT Prague’s ethical principles.

These can include:

• Misunderstandings (between supervisors and subordinates, co-workers, academic and non-academic employees, and/or students at any point in their studies) and other interpersonal conflicts
• Humiliating behaviour
• Unfair treatment, assessment
• Bullying
• Sexualized insinuations

• Student vs. the institution relations (that is, conflicts involving rules/the university system, not people); such issues are handled by the Disciplinary Panel of UCT Prague and the UCT Prague Disciplinary Code
• Employee vs. the institution relations (that is, conflicts involving rules/the university system, not people); such issues are handled by the UCT Prague Personnel Department or labour law.
• Research ethics and plagiarism (that is, violation of scientific fair play); exclusively handled by the the UCT Prague Code of Ethics and Ethics Committee.

Get in touch (details below) with the contact person for these situations, Klára Muzikářová.

You and she will go through the whole process together. In and of itself, a conversation with the contact person is not an official notification about a problem, concern, or complaint. If you, together with the contact person, reach the conclusion that such a course of action is inevitable, you will be advised on next steps by the contact person.

Our top priorities are maintaining confidentiality about information communicated (unless you choose otherwise), protecting those involved in the situation, and searching for the most just and suitable possible solution. The contact person reports only to UCT Prague’s Rector.

How to reach the contact person?

 1. Anonymous chat

Use Safe Talk's secure form (anonymously, if you wish). Your message will reach the contact person. Following communication in the application, you can (but don’t have to) arrange an in-person meeting.

New topic

Continue an existing conversation

2. In-person meeting

Make an appointment in person if you feel up to it or if you prefer in-person communication. Please make an appointment via the emails below.

You can choose to meet with:

• Contact person: ThDr. Klára Muzikářová, Ph.D. (klara.muzikarova@vscht.cz) or
• Psychologist: PhDr. Vladislava Kůželová (vladislava.kuzelova@vscht.cz)

What should I prepare for a SafeTalk conversation or in-person meeting?

In both cases, it is very helpful if you provide as much specific information as possible, such as a description of the issue, its development, the names of the persons involved in the situation (an anonymous description, e.g. student, female employee, instructional staff, is also fine), and your perception and attitudes towards the whole situation. A description of how you think the situation should be resolved is also helpful.

How will my issue be handled?

We prefer to resolve problems informally, by understanding what happened, finding an amicable way forward for both parties involved, and preventing similar situations in the future. In the event that such a solution is proven ineffective, we will assist you with filing an official complaint with the Ethics Committee or the UCT Prague Disciplinary Panel or we will find another fitting way forward. More information below.

We hope that the vast majority of incidents can be resolved informally by finding a resolution or an agreement on next steps. This is why the incident settlement mechanism starts with a robust informal discussion.

1. Safe Talk anonymous chat or meeting with a contact person or psychologist in-person. Above all, this serves in helping orient oneself in the situation, regardless of one's own view of the problem. Anyone from the UCT Prague community, in any situation, can contact us and discuss one’s situation and a possible path forward. Safe Talk chat is completely anonymous (guaranteed by an independent third party service provider).
   Experience at other universities suggests that most issues are resolved at this point.
2. The contact person is only a guide/moderator. She is a trustworthy third party with whom you can discuss any situation. She manages the anonymous chat, communicates with affected parties, and leads the process of finding resolution to an issue. She is trained in psychological crisis intervention.
3. If psychological stabilization of the involved parties is necessary, a meeting with a psychologist is arranged.
4. Under the guidance of the contact person, there is a moderated effort to find an amicable solution and agreement about next steps. This process takes place confidentially, without the knowledge of supervisors or other parties.
   1. The preferred outcome is aninformal solution/agreementsatisfactory to both parties involved in the situation as well as to UCT Prague (represented by the contact person).
5. If this procedure fails, the incident is managed through a formal process after a final consultation with the contact person takes place. A formal complaint cannot be filed anonymously. This formal process takes place in accordance with valid UCT Prague legislation, i.e. with the Ethics Committee’s procedural rules.
   
   1. The result is a recommendation concerning corrective or disciplinary measures handed over by the Ethics Commission to Rector or the concerned Deans or the supervisor of a given department.
   2. In the event of an offense by a student, the process is handled according to disciplinary proceedings following valid UCT Prague regulations.

As of the end of 2023 (start of operations: June 2023), 12 notifications, mostly by email (7 cases from students, in 5 cases from employees).

Most of these situations were related to interpersonal relationships (behaviour of instructors towards students, relationships at the workplace [communication, inappropriate and defamatory remarks, harassment] and problems with studies/employment as such (non-objective/different evaluation of work performance, disadvantages).

Nine of the reported incidents were resolved successfully, mostly by discussing the situation and finding a solution acceptable and adequate for both the reporting party and for UCT Prague. Three cases from 2023 are still pending.

In the first quarter of 2024, 13 notifications were received.

In order for universities to fulfil their missions and create an effective community for education and research, it is essential that members of a university community have a safe enough environment where everyone feels free. UCT Prague students, instructors, and employees cannot concentrate on their goals (i.e. studies, R&D, work tasks) if they have to deal with intolerable harassment.

Harassment is verbal or physical behaviour that is so severe or repeated that it results in disproportionate interference with an individual’s (ability to) work or study, and/or that creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive environment and behaviour in the workplace or educational process. The origin of such behaviour has various origins and can stem from a pathologically disproportionate pressure to perform to personal antipathies, cultural, racial, gender, sexually, or otherwise motivated antisocial behavioural agendas.

UCT Prague’s leadership is aware that these are often very complicated situations and that it is not always clear what the ideal procedure for solving an issue should be. Thus, UCT Prague provides the mechanism and measures described here to help in evaluating a situation and resolving it.

The main goal of resolving misunderstandings and disputes is the timely and fair achievement of a state of calm and equilibrium. This usually assumes:

• An explanation and comparison of the asymmetric perception and emotions of the actors in the situation at hand,
• Finding agreement by the interested parties on how to prevent the continuation of an undesirable situation in the future,
• In cases that require it, dispute resolution (i.e. formal resolution, most often through the Ethics Committee).

Our perceived behaviour of an environment, towards ourselves or to others, is subjective. What one person considers being humiliating, intimidating, or hostile, another person may perceive quite differently. In other words, judging whether behaviour constitutes intolerable harassment is often a subjective opinion.

This subjectivity and different understandings of situations can create negative consequences for any actors involved as well as influence their professional and social environments.

The negative effects can be magnified, mainly as a result of three fundamental influences:

1. If the harassment/behaviour persists despite it being rejected.
2. Any power inequality. Positive and negative behaviour on the part of a superior person is perceived more intensively by a subordinate person. A wide range of relationships can be considered as having such an inequality.
   
   
   1. Hard differences: e.g. age, year of study, titles obtained, academic positions, or generally higher positions in any hierarchical system and the possibility to set the rules of the situation. Hard power differences are more significant from an institutional perspective.
   2. Soft power inequalities: superiority of a highly intelligent person over an average person, superiority of an attractive person over a person who perceives them as such; in society, the predominance of a more socially capable person over an asocial person, and so on.
   
   Interpersonal relationships tend to be a complex mix of such inequalities. However, it is generally assumed that a person in a higher position carries, together with greater experience and power, greater responsibility in caring for cultivating a positive social environment.
   
   
3. Delay: not resolving disagreements at the time they occur. The neglected feeling of wrongdoing deepens over time and it is more likely that the behaviour will be repeated. The realities of the original situation become less legible and more subject to subjective interpretation.
   This is also why it is in UCT Prague’s interest to resolve misunderstandings, disagreements, and potentially more serious problems as they occur, in a proactive and urgent manner, in order to prevent escalations and deeper impacts on both sides of a dispute, especially regarding the paths for their future studies, research, or work activities.

In 2023, UCT Prague began to address the topic of a safe social environment formally, including creating a notification process for reporting inappropriate behaviour.

• A contact person was appointed, an anonymous chat for members of the UCT Prague community was launched, university legislation was amended, and work with the Ethics Committee began.
• To heighten awareness and to educate the UCT Prague community about the topic of interpersonal relations and related issues, an informational website was launched (including Safe Talk for anonymous issue reporting), workshops for the Ethics Committee and the academic community were held, informational texts in student brochures were created, and articles were published in UCT Prague’s SPIN magazine. Most of these activities continue to take place at regular intervals or will be repeated regularly going forward.
• Work began on an educational video for the UCT Prague community.

In 2024, the overall reporting and prevention mechanism will be fine-tuned, based on evaluating data and procedures from 2023.

• Mechanisms will be anchored in UCT Prague legislation (e.g. additions to the Code of Ethics, cancellation of the original directive, publication of regular reporting metrics).
• Preventive and educational activities will continue, notably in the form of regular workshops, but also including one-off educational activities. An educational video in Czech will be published for the UCT Prague community, and a related interactive e-learning course is in the process of being launched.
• Throughout the year, the emphasis will be on promoting the entire topic across the UCT Prague community (websites updates, information on social networks, and so on).

I have been a UCT Prague employee since 2019 and am currently UCT Prague’s Chancellor. I studied Theology and Judaic studies at Charles University and am now finishing a Master’s degree in Social and Charitable work there. I also passed the state exams in criminal and administrative law at the Czech Police Academy, and this combination of knowledge entitles me to (to put it humbly) a profound overview of the events that come our way in life and the consequences they may have.

My work at UCT Prague does not involve teaching or research, which allows me to avoid conflict of interest. In addition to my volunteer activities in the social/charitable field, I have been active in the UCT Prague’s COVID response team and the team dealing with issues related to the war in Ukraine. I have helped incoming Ukrainian students, organized an aid transport to Mykolaiv University (Ukraine), and co-organized the Donate Blood, Donate Life event.

I look forward to helping you solve any issues you may encounter, within the framework of the above-mentioned agenda.

I enjoy people. Maybe because I like almost everyone I meet and because I learn a lot about myself by studying them. Because of this, I studied psychology at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague, where I strengthened the feeling that I had made the right choice, also understanding that this means ongoing, lifelong professional education. I gradually began looking for what to specialize in and how to find ways and possibilities to expand my knowledge. This led me to focus professionally on the issue of leading people and creating conditions so that they like to go to work, that the time spent at work fulfils them because they feel good about work and feel as if they are independent personalities who act, think, and are creative. I have had the opportunity to test my hypotheses about leadership and work environments in the real world as former Director of the National Pedagogical Institute of the Czech Republic and head of the Student Affairs Department at the Rectorate of Charles University. I am also currently head of the Department of Social Affairs, Health Care, and Education for Prague 2.

In the same way that I enjoy people, I enjoy working in the UCT Prague academic environment. I developed the concept of the Counselling and Career Centre UCT Prague with gusto and joy. You will regularly find articles I’ve written in the Z hloubi duše section of SPIN, often based on problems solved with students in the counselling centre. My life philosophy is simple: nothing can be changed on one’s path through life, one can only keep learning. I can usually answer questions myself about why, for what, and at what cost. Every now and then, I take stock of my life and the world around me. I am not an admirer of big names, although I respect their achievements very much. On the contrary, I am motivated and inspired by the ordinary and unobtrusive people around me. People who can overcome their limits and remain humble inside. People who are able to change their habits for their own sake despite the stereotypes they have experienced. I like stories about people with whom I can identify, compare, and maybe even compete with a little. I only pass on what I believe and what I have tried and tested. Passing on is a great gift that should be used and understood as a person's duty to oneself and others.