Reducing
Student/Student Conflicts
Other
prevention efforts are aimed specifically at reducing
conflicts between students who live together. The work
often begins before students arrive on campus, as some
conflicts can be headed off through careful matching of
roommates based on information provided on application
forms.
Many residence life programs also promote the use of "roommate
agreement forms" and "floormate agreement
forms" in residence halls. The forms prompt students
to discuss, often with the aid of Residential Assistants,
a list of potentially conflicting issues with their roommates
and sometimes floormates, at the start of their time living
together. The forms provide a starting place for discussion
and agreement building, and may be used to encourage further
discussion and renegotiation if problems arise.
Improving
the Student Work Group Experience
Some
campuses are also working to increase students' ability
to function effectively within the kinds of adhoc groups
that they may encounter in labs and when doing group assignments
for class. Some departments or individual faculty members
with courses requiring a significant amount of group work
have group skills training built
into their curriculum. They sometimes draw on campus
mediation program personnel to help develop and staff
these training sessions, or to prepare specialized
group work handouts.
Mediation programs have also worked hand-in-hand with
student governments. For instance, due to their perceived
neutrality, mediation program volunteers have been called
on to help monitor hotly contested student government
elections by observing the polling sites, and serving
as the first point of contact for student election-related
grievances. They have also moderated candidate forums,
provided recount services, and facilitated contentious
budget meetings.
Partnering
to Enhance Campus Construction Efforts
Another kind of dispute prevention concept catching on
at colleges and universities is called Partnering. The
process is most commonly used to facilitate
the successful completion of major campus construction
projects.
Pioneered by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the early
1990s, Partnering has quickly become very popular within
the construction industry. The Partnering process normally
involves a one or two-day retreat attended by all stakeholders
(decision makers as well as job site supervisors) in the
particular project. The retreat is usually held at a neutral
location (a resort or private meeting facility) and is
led by experienced facilitators who help the participants
to focus on communication, negotiation, identification
of mutual goals and objectives, and details of project-specific
potential problems and solutions. The purpose is not to
change any contractual responsibilities but rather to
focus on building the working relationships among the
participants. Common documents created at sessions to
smooth onsite problem-solving include "issue escalation
matrixes" detailing who has decision-making authority
over what issues, and a "partnering charter"
that lays out general agreements in principle supported
by all participants.
Changes
in Labor Relations on Campus
Unionized
colleges and universities are exploring ways to reduce
the time and considerable costs associated with disputes
that go to outside arbitrators. On some campuses this
has meant increased support for and use of internal grievance
mediation as a step prior to outside arbitration. Another
interesting model is the one developed
by four campuses within the Connecticut State University
System. In this system, an arbitration-type step was
built into the grievance process, but it remains within
the State System rather than being sent outside. When
handling faculty grievances, the CSU System uses grievance
arbitration panels comprised in equal parts of employees
representing the administration and faculty members. These
individuals, drawn from each of the 3 neighboring institutions,
have sufficient distance from the area of dispute to guarantee
some measure of detachment. Each panel is comprised of
three members of the AAUP and three members of the administration,
with the stipulation that no panel member can be from
the university where the grievance originated. The grievance-arbitration
panel is the final step before professional arbitration
is engaged. Only in the event of a 3-3 tie vote can either
party, if it chooses, take the issue to outside arbitration.
Interest-Based
Bargaining
Unionized
campuses are beginning to experiment with a new form of
collective bargaining known as interest-based or collaborative
bargaining, in an attempt to reduce some of the negative
effects of traditional contentious negotiations. Interest-Based
Bargaining is essentially an alternative style of
negotiating used to achieve positive results for both
parties. The emphasis in traditional bargaining is on
the relative power of the parties and their willingness
to use it both in regard to specific issues as well as
the overall settlement. Interest-Based Bargaining is instead
a problem solving/consensus approach to negotiations that
focuses on the interests of the parties.
In order to apply Interest-Based Bargaining administration
and faculty usually begin by participating in joint training
provided by bargaining consultants. The workshops introduce
parties to non-adversarial collective bargaining concepts,
give both sides a common language, educate them as to
what's involved and who is involved, and explore the steps
that would be required to develop a collaborative working
relationship. The interest-based bargaining process used
at the University of Montana and Eastern Washington University
is well documented in a 1997 Negotiation Journal article
by Dennison, Drummond, and Hobgood on collaborative bargaining
in public universities.
