University Chooses Not To Use Famed Mediation Professors With PSLM

No one has called Harvard Law School (HLS) professor emeritus Roger D. Fisher `43 about the Progressive Student Labor Movement (PSLM) standoff in the Yard.

But if they did, he would have a lot to say.

The author of the national best-selling book Getting to Yes which explains a process of negotiating in which both sides "win," Fisher has advised and mediated many pivotal international disputes.

Fisher brokered a settlement between Egypt and Israel over the Sinai Peninsula, conducted negotiations workshops with both the African National Congress and President deKlerk's cabinet in South Africa, helped deal with the American hostage situation in Iran in 1980, and ended a decades long conflict over a disputed border between Peru and Ecuador.

After all this, dealing with a PSLM sit-in in Harvard Yard shouldn't seem too daunting.

But so far, Fisher has stayed out of the fray-not because he doesn't want to be involved, but because no one has asked him for help.

"[Fisher] is retired," says Bruce M. Patton`77, the deputy director of the Harvard Negotiation Project, a group that helps mediate both local and international conflicts. "People may not look to him the same way they did 10 years ago even though he's still capable."

When it comes to conflicts like the one currently embroiling the College, Fisher knows what he is talking about.

"His thinking helped establish the baseline theory of negotiation," Patton says.

During the Cold War, Fisher co-authored an article with a member of the Politburo, the policy-making body of the Soviet Union, that became official Soviet policy. According to Patton, Fisher pioneered ways in which opposing sides can work together even when they disagree on fundamental matters.

Fisher says that instead of continuing to escalate the conflict, the PSLM should state their demands in a way that

allows Harvard to agree with out appearing weak.

"The more the students use force, the more they make it difficult for Harvard to back down to illegal activities," Fisher says. According to Fisher, the parties need to find a solution that "they both could talk to their constituencies about."

"You have to give them a choice to say yes to," agrees Robert C. Bordone, deputy director of the Harvard Negotiation Research Project and Beal lecturer at HLS. "Its easier to find the stick than the carrot."

Bordone described a negotiation process that should take place, centered

around three principles: "niceness, provocability, and forgiveness." To reach a solution, he says, each side should treat each other "nicely" but should show that they can respond forcefully to aggression. But as soon as one party backs down and returns to "niceness," the other party should be forgiving.

The current standoff, Bordone says, is not following these ground rules.

"Basically the cycle we're in now is defect, defect, defect, defect."

Such a process, he says, is not likely to succeed for either party.

If the University granted student demands now, according to Bordone, they

might set a dangerous precedent.

Instituting a living wage might invite future protests of a similar manner, certainly something the administration wants to avoid. But the stakes are high for the PSLM also-they have been occupying Mass. Hall for almost two weeks now.

"Its basically a game of chicken and the question is who's going to blink first," Bordone says.

Fisher compared the situation in Harvard Yard to a conflict he mediated

between Peru and Ecuador over Twintza, a disputed community on the border

between the two countries. Both refused to cede the territory, so Fisher worked out an agreement in which Twintza was turned into a de-militarized conservation area, under the sovereignty of Peru. However, Ecuador would own the land like it owned its embassy property in a foreign country. The

solution worked and the violence between the two countries over that issue,

which had been simmering for 50 years, ceased.

"Each president has to say something to his constituents," Fisher says. "Ecuador could say 'We own it' and Peru could say 'We have sovereignty.'"

As in the situation with Peru and Ecuador, both sides in the Harvard conflict need to find a politically acceptable way out.

Approaching the problem from the opposition's point of view and remembering that they are also people, according to Fisher, will lead to progress-ad hominem attacks often do more harm than good when trying to work towards a constructive solution.

Fisher suggests that PSLM draw up a chart from the administration's perspective to try to find a way that each side can emerge from the controversy politically "okay" with their constituencies. The PSLM could map the pluses and minuses from Harvard's point of view, Fisher says, both if Harvard gives in and if they stand firm so that PSLM can develop a greater understanding of the opposition's view.

The University also, according to Fisher, is also not handling the situation well. Fisher says Harvard should approach the issue from an educational standpoint. The standoff, he says, gives the University an opportunity to teach students about social change.

"It seems to me Harvard should have someone endlessly meeting with

students," he says. "Harvard's current [methods] are clearly not the best way to deal with educational matters with the students."

Fisher says the University should also look more positively on the protestors themselves. The University, he says, "should say, 'It's wonderful to have students engaged and not just drinking beer all the time. It's terrific...now let's consider the issues.'"

While the divide may be large between the two groups, there is not much

that can be accomplished unless they begin to communicate with each other.

Both Bordone and Fisher agree that negotiation is essential at a time like this.

"It seems like a ripe situation for a skilled negotiator," Bordone says.

"When emotions run high, the likelihood of this escalating goes up."

A good negotiator would spend a lot of time talking to both parties and get a sense of their positions and possibly find a mutually acceptable solution.

Fisher, although he is critical of the tactics of both sides, will not venture a prediction as to how the occupation of Mass. Hall will end.

But he does say that if the protestors persist in turning the situation into a power struggle in which they have "basically declared war" on the University, the consequences could be grave. In a battle of power, Harvard could kick the students out of Mass. Hall and possibly expel them from the school.

"Harvard is being very gentle allowing the students to stay in the building," he says.