Mediation Arrives For Good
BY ERIN HURLEY

Signs decorated with teddy bears for the Oberlin Campus Dialogue Center have popped up around campus. The signs welcome you to “Come and learn how you can contribute to your college community!!!!” But behind this fluffy exterior is a real organization committed to serious problems on the Oberlin College campus. 
The difficulty to manage conflicts at an institution with a diverse population drove the creation of the mediation center. In light of the recent Zeke conflicts, it has become clear that a dialogue among Oberlin’s various factions is necessary. 
“I see segregation on campus, and it’s voluntary. I think people think about their problems separately and need a way to come together to discuss them,” said first-year Matico Josephson. By attempting to facilitate dialogue among the various groups at Oberlin, the Center hopes to minimize tensions and help the various groups better understand each other’s problems and concerns.
The center would like to open its doors in September for the Fall semester. They’re currently in the planning stages, and are working to create the mediation team which will be the central feature of the Dialogue Center. 
The idea behind the center came from Yeworkwha Belachew, Oberlin’s Ombudsperson, and has been further researched and planned by a “design team,” consisting of both students and faculty members, formed in fall of 2000.
The design team shaped its goals out of a series of surveys conducted on campus and are tailoring the Dialogue Center and the mediation team to the specific concerns voiced by both the administration as well as various student organizations. 
“I was very involved in mediation at my previous institution and believe very strongly in the importance of mediation as a means of encouraging students to sort out their own conflicts,” said Dean of Students Peter Goldsmith, who has voiced his support for a mediation team on campus.
“The goal for the end of the year [for the design team] is to recruit members after applications and interviews,” design team member and sophomore Diksha Dua said. She added, “We are seeking a group which represents the different socio-economic backgrounds, academic levels, genders, religions, different class levels, etc. on our campus.”
The center will consist of 20 students and five faculty/staff members.
The design team has been studying conflict resolution and mediation theory and have decided on the co-mediation model, which simply means a two-person mediation system. They seek to achieve conflict resolution through an examination of underlying causes or conflicts instead of addressing only surface problems. They also want to stress the importance of a “neutral” party (i.e. the mediators) in conflict resolution. 
One of the most important features of the Dialogue Center is its firm basis in “the social justice model” of conflict mediation, which seeks to uphold a belief in social change.
The Center hopes to, at some point, work in conjunction with the existing Oberlin Community Dialogue Center in the planning of education workshops and forums, also an important part of the Center’s agenda. 

The only things that are not a part of the center’s agenda are union cases, sexual harassment and legal disputes, but they encourage the parties to “utilize the services that this program offers, for gaining information and utilizing mediation as a second option.”