Mediating Conflict & Resolving Disputes at Baruch

Today my friend and I went to this workshop, which is our final workshop ever!  This workshop took place in our Freshman Seminar classroom, 3-190 VC.  The room was too small because so many people attended whether they were registered or not.  The students that came in late ended up sitting on the floors.  The workshop would have been better if it was in a bigger room like any lecture hall.  The speaker was Mindy Engle-Friedman, a mediator and a psychology professor at Baruch.  She talked about the types of conflicts there are at Baruch such as peer conflicts especially with friends and student-professor conflicts especially with grades.  She also told us that there is an Ombuds here at Baruch which is neutral and confidential, and there is a mediator to take care of any conflicts students may have.  Then came the fun part.  She divided us into groups of 4 or 5 and gave each group a different scenario, and we had to practice role-playing.  My group’s scenario was that a student got a D in a class and asks the professor for an F so that person could take the class over, but refused.  A boy in my group was the Ombuds mediator, a girl in my group made a complaint to the mediator, my friend was the chairperson, and I was the teacher.  Even though I’m not an expert at doing this, I tried my best and the conflict eventually got resolved.   The groups that presented were very good at role-playing overall, and she also stopped those who were presenting several times to make some key points.  I this was very good because this will help me in the future when it comes a time where one of my conflicts need to be resolved.  I would definitely recommend this workshop to every Baruch student because you might never know when a conflict arises, and you’ll be prepared to talk with a mediator using the right and appropriate words.