Students Offer Conflict Resolution Service

Just in time for blocking season, Harvard students now have a new option for resolving personal conflicts. The Conflict Resource Center (CRC), a group of 16 students trained in confidential conflict mediation, will start offering their resolution services on Monday.

"Blocking group week is a difficult time for freshmen. Students need to talk with each other honestly, but sometimes its hard to do that," said Naomi F. Coquillon '02, co-director of CRC. "We're here to help."

Next Thursday, the CRC will hold a presentation for blocking students, discussing issues that commonly arise and tips for approaching difficult conversations surrounding the blocking process.

The first-year blocking deadline is March 14.

The CRC, advised by the Bureau of Study Counsel (BSC), will offer nightly phone and drop-in services.

"Our purpose is to give people with interpersonal problems a place to receive confidentitial peer mediation," Coquillon said. "We're prepared for a wide range of problems, but we focus on basic roommate problems--conflicting hours, messiness, boyfriends--whatever may be causing stress within a room."

The group will also arrange sit-down meetings in neutral settings to mediate conflicts between students.

"Mediation is a confidential, voluntary process where mediators facilitate communication and a resolution. We're facilitators, basically," said Elizabeth C. Tippett '02, CRC's other co-director. "We facilitate communication."

All mediation sessions involve two student mediators, she said.

Travis F. Batty '02, the CRC's treasurer, said the group's mission is to fill a student-led mediation vacuum on the Harvard campus.

"So much of the Harvard experience is based on interpersonal relationships," Batty said. "There are lots of peer counseling groups, but there weren't any mediation groups."

Tippett and Coquillon conceived of the CRC in January 2000 during a statistics project while conducting a random survey of 50 students.

"The majority said they had had roommate conflict, and 40 percent of those said they would use student conflict mediation if it was available," Tippett said.

The staff, initially recruited through the annual fall activities fair and an application process, has undergone what Tippett calls "intensive and extensive" training since September. The Harvard Negotiation Project, a Harvard Law School (HLS) teaching and research center, and the Harvard Medication Program, an HLS student organization where students are trained to mediate in small claims court, provided training workshops.

BSC provided training on psychological and emotional issues that may arise during CRC mediation sessions.

"Many conflicts have mental health or psychological issues that arise, and we advise [CRC] on these issues," said Charles P. Ducey, the director of BCS. "The group may also may refer students to us."

The CRC will be available Monday through Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m. in the Currier House Gilbert Seminar Room and by calling 494-7386.

--Staff writer Arianne R. Cohen can be reached at cohen7@fas.harvard.edu.