Rao hopes to fill 25 slots in the program by January 2001. The Peer Mediation Program grew out of a review of the staff grievance process several years ago. While it currently is still part of the Fairness Review Process for administrative and support staff, it also has evolved into an option that is open to all groups on campus. Rao would like to expand the mediation program in order to encourage more members of the University community to use it as a means of conflict resolution. The point is to help promote more civil and timely communication on campus, Rao says.
Hurts build, tensions escalate and the situation becomes worse.
Mediation minimizes the destructive potential of conflict, as the mediators facilitate communication by focusing on the interests of the disputants rather than on issues of right and wrong. Mediators seek to create an environment of parity between the disputing parties and to help them develop solutions they can live with. In many cases, the participants in a dispute have found mediation preferable to resolving their dispute in a rights-based process, such as a panel hearing, because it's less adversarial and the participants feel they have more control over the outcome. It sets people up to try and prove that they're right. With mediation, the whole idea is that it doesn't matter who's right and wrong.