Anti-Harassment Contact Persons

According to the Universities Act, every student is entitled to a safe study environment.

ISYY is committed to making sure that the University of Eastern Finland is a safe learning and study environment for all students. The University must be accessible for everyone, and no-one should experience discrimination of any sort.

Anti-Harassment Contact Persons offer help and support to students who have encountered harassment or inappropriate behaviour at the University. The harassment contact person can offer discussion help, advice and act as a support person in situations perceived as oppressive. The harassment contact person can organize a mediation if the parties so wish, or help in filing a potential criminal complaint. However, the harassment contact person is not a judge, authority or feedback broker. The harassment contact person does not decide whether the treatment experienced by the person is harassment or bullying, but it is determined by legislation. The harassment contact person does not decide on punishments or impose them. Please contact them in case you encounter bullying, discrimination, racism, sexual harassment or inappropriate behavior during your studies. Anti-Harassment Contact Persons operate in both Kuopio and Joensuu.

When you take contact

Before you take a contact to anti-harassment persons, it's good to become familiar with the rector's act concerning bullying and inappropriate behavior which can be seen in Kamu.

You can contact the anti-harassment contact persons by e-mail or by phone. Anti-Harassment contact persons can also be met at ISYY's campus offices, but if you want a personal meeting, this must be agreed separately in advance. The UEF has also an anti.harassment person of their own, who you can also contact. 

The contact can be free-form, but the more detailed description you can give of the situation or event, the easier it is to clarify the matter. Below are some tips and questions to help you prepare for contact,

• Tell precisely and in detail as possible you can what happened.
• Is this a matter of an single event whether a situation that has been going on for a long time
• Has harrasment happened on the rooms of the university or did it happen elsewhere
• Who participated in the event and in what role
• Is it a situation between students or is the other party university staff or some other kind of situation
• Is it a situation related to teaching or did the harassment happen during free time
• What did you find disturbing in the situation

All the information you share is handled with complete confidentiality.

Anti-Harassment Contact Persons in ISYY

Pekka Koivaara, Specialist for Interest Advocacy (Joensuu), tel. +358 (0) 44 576 8465, soko(at)isyy.fi

Mikko Aaltonen, Specialist in Academic and Social Affairs (Kuopio), tel. +358 (0) 44 576 8414, koso(at)isyy.fi

Anti-Harassment Contact Persons in UEF

Student Well-being Specialist Tiina Juurela, tel. +358 (0) 40 516 2572, tiina.juurela@uef.fi