What Questions May Be Addressed by This Measure?
These questions allow you to collect information specific to the
conflicts and disputes that your office is handling. Details
include the types of disputes that come to your office and how they
are managed, including routing (e.g., whether referred out to another
office), time involved, and resolution.
How Do I Use This Measure?
Case characteristics should be recorded as early and often as possible.
Incorporating questions into the various systems you have in place
or are creating is an excellent way to ensure this type of data
is collected. For example, during Intake, include questions
about how the disputant heard about your office, the type of conflict
that is occurring, and what other avenues they have tried before
contacting you. This tool contains examples of characteristics
you might want to track. You will want to think through issues
of confidentiality.
What Information Will the Results Give Me?
Results provide important information for both report writing as
well as for identifying areas for improvement. You can use
the information to find out what marketing venues best get the word
out about your services, the type of conflicts occurring on campus,
as well as insight into whether cases are being managed efficiently.
Case Characteristics -- Sample Questions
Type of Dispute – A variety of different kinds of
conflict can occur on a campus, thus this category is quite broad.
A checklist format is helpful for data collection during Intake
and possibly during a mediation session. The list provided
below is a template; modify as needed.
_____ housing
_____ noise
_____ harassment/assault
_____ vandalism
_____ borrowed/stolen property
_____ course-related (grades, evaluation)
_____ interpersonal (personal differences not captured by other
types)
_____ Other: ____________________________________
Referrals – Basically you want to identify how people
are finding out about your services as well as to whom you refer
cases, for either additional or different services. Again,
a checklist format will likely be the most useful approach.
Also, documenting this information during Intake is probably most
practical. The list provided below is a template; modify as
needed:
_____ residence hall staff
_____ campus police/security
_____ judicial affairs
_____ campus clergy
_____ campus legal services
_____ faculty member
_____ media (newspaper, phonebook, public service announcement)
_____ roommate/friend/acquaintance (aka word-of-mouth)
_____ Other: ______________________________
Other Avenues Attempted – What else has a disputant
tried? This information can help gauge how well the word about
mediation is reaching your campus audience and how mediation compares
with other possible conflict-resolution options (e.g., talking about
it with a friend, arbitration, legal action). This is an open-ended
question to be asked during Intake.
Pending Action – Sometimes cases come to mediation
with strings attached. For example, there may be disciplinary
actions or a small claims court filing that may be or already have
been initiated. This is an open-ended question to be asked
during Intake.
Time Involved – There are several issues of interest
pertaining to mediation sessions as well as to the impact of the
conflict on the disputants’ and your time.
· Mediation Sessions:
Document the start and end time for each mediation session to determine
the number of minutes/hours spent in mediation. Also, document
the number of sessions devoted to each conflict. For example,
a certain conflict might involve two mediation sessions to reach
resolution, each lasting an hour.
· Days Devoted to Conflict
Resolution: Document the date you first received a case and
the date the case was closed to determine the number of days your
office was involved in the conflict. If possible, try and
find out the date the conflict started between the disputants to
measure the number of days between inception of conflict and case
closing.
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