The
Minnesota Alternative Dispute Resolution Program
(MN ADR), which administers the Workplace Mediation
Pilot Project, is bringing workplace mediation
to Minnesota college campuses.
MN ADR has had an internal workplace mediation
program for executive branch agencies and employees
since mid-1998. The Minnesota State Colleges and
Universities (MNSCU) were not included at that
time because of their size. MNSCU is comprised
of 35 institution, including 2- and 4-yr colleges
and technical colleges on 50+ campuses throughout
the state. This does not include the four institutions
that are part of the University of Minnesota system.
The Workplace Mediation Pilot Project is now in
the process of folding 30 of the 35 MNSCU institutions
into the state workplace mediation program. The
program will cover faculty, administrative and
represented employees. Campus coordinators are
appointed by the presidents of the various institutions.
The bulk of the Coordinators have been appointed
and trained this past August and they are in the
process of recommending mediator candidates.
Campus
Coordinators responsibilities include:
-
Serving
as the initial point of contact for employees
seeking information about mediation
-
Serving
as a general liaison with the MN ADR staff
-
Promoting
the workplace mediation project on campus
-
Serving
as campus contact for workplace mediation
issues both for employees and for the
MN ADR program staff
-
Working
with MN ADR program staff to determine
appropriateness of mediation for the particular
dispute
-
On
an as-needed basis, review mediated agreements
for issues that are outside of the responsibilities/authority
of the participants to implements and
determine whether agreement needs to be
seen by others in the department to be
implemented
-
Serve
as a resource for participants if an agreements
is not being followed
-
Work
with MN ADR in evaluating the Campus Mediation
Project
MN
ADR has utilized a shared neutrals pool of mediators
from a number of state agencies and at all work
levels. The campus mediators will be folded into
the roster and will work on both campus and agency
disputes as will the agency mediators. They generally
work with co-mediators.
The MN ADR office does the case development which
includes suitability of the issue for mediation,
conversations with the parties, scheduling the
mediation and assigning the mediators. Participants
in mediation are given evaluation forms and MN
ADR maintains the data base and does an analysis
of the results.
