Peer mediators offer new path for conflict resolution

Students who want to resolve a conflict with another student – an interpersonal concern, for example, or an issue with a fellow member of a student organization – can now request the help of a peer mediator.

The Office of Inclusion, Community and Integrative Learning launched a peer mediation program on Monday, Feb. 14.

Students encounter plenty of potential sources of conflict: Some are specific to the current moment – for example, the national political climate and the pandemic. Others are longstanding challenges for university students, such as living in close community with people from different backgrounds. Organizers expect that most requests for peer mediators will center on disputes between friends, disagreements within or among student organizations or other low-level interpersonal conflicts.

All of these types of conflicts, if not resolved, can affect students’ college experience.

“How do people in different student organizations collaborate and work together?” said Carson Smith, a conflict resolution fellow with the Office of Institutional Equity, Access and Community, and one of the architects of the program. “How do I learn to live with someone who is really quite different from me?”

A structured mediation process

Students who want a peer mediator’s help resolving a conflict will fill out an online form, offering details and the names of others they would like involved. This will be reviewed by staff members to be sure the dispute is appropriate for a peer mediator.

Because mediation is a consent-based process, the staff members reviewing the request will check with the other parties involved to see if they want to participate.

“They both have to really want to engage in that process,” Smith said. This is most likely when the conflict involves people who have a previous relationship and see value in continuing it – perhaps to continue working together in a student organization that they both value or to rebuild a friendship.

The form lets students know up front that peer mediators, who are paid student workers, are designated as responsible employees of the university and are therefore obligated to report concerns about abuse or harassment.

In-depth training

The six student mediators — three undergraduate and three graduate students — have been working through a 25-30-hour training program since October. Once assigned to mediation cases, they will work in pairs.

“In my undergraduate career, I was in charge of a large student organization – and what comes with being in charge of a large organization is a lot of conflict that you have to mediate,” said Becca Rodell, a first-year Ph.D. student in chemical and systems biology and one of the peer mediators. “I enjoyed being able to take two people who were having some disagreement and help them come to a resolution to help them work together again.”

The training includes an examination of why conflicts happen, how to plan for a mediation session, and what to do when the conversation breaks down.

“The training has given me a whole lot of insight into the types of issues you should look for and how to approach the conversation in a structured way,” Rodell said. For example, mediators meet one-on-one with each disputant in a conflict before meeting with two (or more) of them together.

Assessing the results

The peer mediation program is a pilot program that will be evaluated after this year.

Its success will not be measured by how many problems are “solved,” however. Not every mediation will end with a resolution that satisfies everyone.

“Sometimes there is no resolution; there will not be a happy ending,” Rodell said. “And that’s also okay.”

For example, some conflicts stem from people expressing opinions that are hurtful — but which may also be protected as free speech.

“There might not be agreement, but it is helpful to the individual in taking a small step in the direction of having a little bit more understanding,” said Ankita Rakhe, assistant dean for student support in the Office for Inclusion, Community and Integrative Learning and a co-creator of the program. “We can talk about it – and research has shown that talking about something, processing something – whether it’s through a circle, through educational workshops, or in peer mediation – usually can help move a discussion at least a step further.”

The hope, Rodell said, is to help as many students as possible resolve disputes to make their campus experience better – and to give them tools for resolving conflicts that they can use throughout their lives.