What is a Conflict Resolution Office?
A Conflict Resolution Office would be a confidential resource where students could discuss grievances they experience. Grievances could range from personal conflicts with peers, mentorship conflicts, problems with current policies, to problems with discrimination. When a student has a conflict, sometimes they just want to talk it out with someone they can trust before deciding how to proceed. Other times, they want to file an official grievance but aren’t sure how to do so. Or, they need help thinking about all the options available to them. A Conflict Resolution Office would do all of these things. If the office staff identify pervasive concerns (for example, a specific policy is harmful to a demographic of students), then they can notify the Dean of the issue so that it can be addressed. Moreover, this office can proactively address conflict through workshops and seminars as necessary.
This service would be similar to an Ombudsman (see this link for an example of a University Ombudsman Office). A full description of this office and the impact it could have on campus can be found in this proposal (Note, the office is referred to as an Ombudsman Office in the proposal).
Why is GSC advocating for this? What are the benefits?
During GSC meetings, through the Graduate Student Perspectives Survey, and during the Graduate Student Diversity and Inclusion Town Hall meetings, students have asked GSC to focus our efforts on this initiative. GSC believed that a Conflict Resolution Office would be extremely beneficial to graduate students. Specifically, this office could be a route to address major systemic conflicts and minor altercations. We believe this office would improve student retention, improve our quality of life, and lead to the creation of more efficient policies.
What progress has been made?
GSC began this initiative by advocating for an Ombudsman Office. You can find the very informative proposal GSC submitted here. Generally, across the US, there is controversy over the term “Ombudsman”. Because this term can mean different things to different people, we decided to clarify our purpose and initiative by changing the title of the proposed office to a “Conflict Resolution Office”.
Before creating a whole new Conflict Resolution Office, the Graduate School is hiring a Life Coach. A Life Coach is a great first step. The Graduate School believes that a Life Coach can perform many of the same tasks as a Conflict Resolution Office. A Life Coach can help students address conflicts they are experiencing and may be able to raise systemic issues to the attention of the Dean.
Our understanding is that before a Conflict Resolution Office can be created, the University needs more data to justify the expense of this office and to garner buy-in from other Vanderbilt leaders.
What steps still need to be taken?
In the future, GSC would like to see a multiple person office which will enable the office to 1) balance a larger workload and 2) be proactive rather than reactive. Furthermore, GSC would like the opportunity to include certain clauses in the Life Coach Office Charter (and eventually the Conflict Resolution Office Charter) that would ensure the best standard of care for graduate students. These clauses would be something along the lines of:
- “This Office does not accept ‘notice’ on behalf of the University.” -> This ensures the office does not have to report your concern unless you specifically ask them to.
- “This Office operates independently from Vanderbilt University” -> Yes, Vanderbilt will still pay the salary of the Life Coach, but this clause will ensure that the Life Coach decides how and when to spend their office budget. It also gives the Life Coach authority to stand up to pressure from other entities who might have an opinion on how the Life Coach should operate.
- “This Office is a confidential resource and does not maintain records on its visitors.” -> This clause ensures confidentiality.
- “The Life Coach will collect anonymized data regarding the general purpose of office visits and the frequency and cause of systemic issues on campus.” -> By collecting data, GSC hopes the Life Coach position could, overtime, justify the creation of a larger Conflict Resolution Office.
How can graduate students help guide this initiative?
After reading this memo, we’d be grateful if you would fill out our anonymous 5 question form to provide us with your input. GSC hopes that your voice will help us show the Graduate School how important this initiative is to the student body. With this new momentum, we hope to negotiate clauses like the ones above into the Life Coach Office Charter, which is the next step towards our larger goal.
Give us feedback.