By Miles Pedowitz
Correspondent
The College’s Division of Inclusive Excellence recently reached out to the campus community, in collaboration with the Division of Student Affairs, regarding the potential implementation of restorative justice policies in the school’s conflict management strategies.
As stated in an email sent out to the student body on March 30, the implementation of restorative justice programs seeks to “fill the gap where a person or community has been harmed” in a manner that does not reach the level of policy violations, by “offering an alternative resolution when a punitive solution is not the desired outcome.”
Many schools have been implementing novel strategies to resolve conflicts that avoid identifying or mislabeling any individuals in a manner that feels vilifying or punitive. Through practices of mediated conversations, discussion circles and acknowledgement of accountability, these less formal and less permanent solutions act as more impartial tools that allow both sides of a conflict to feel equally heard. Now, the College is looking to incorporate these methods.
“Dispute resolution” once existed as a process by which students could resolve conflicts via shuttle diplomacy, conversation and mediation. Associate Vice President for Inclusive Excellence and Campus Equal Employment Opportunity Officer Crystel Maldonado said that these sorts of measures help individuals “resolve incidents at hand rather than use any kind of formal investigation.”
Last year, the school launched the “In Good Faith” campaign, in which students could have conversations with one another about their differences, without rising to any degree of conflict. The offices of Student Affairs and Title IX have for years employed means for alternative resolution that help raise a degree of accountability and respect between parties involved, and work has been going on to improve such practices in the human resources and Equal Employment Opportunity processes.
The goal of these new restorative justice efforts, according to Maldonado, is to “bring the campus together, rather than having one [department] do it one way, and another person doing things another way,” thus formalizing these restorative efforts as a unified institutional process.
Students on campus are no strangers to conflict — some have faced disagreements, which can lead to frustrations or feelings of being trapped in their limited ability to resolve them. “Since COVID, we’ve seen that there’s been a decline in students’ ability to navigate conflict and difficult situations,” said Associate Vice President for Student Affairs Jordan Draper. The restorative justice method would serve as a new and “proactive version of [resolution] that is not based in a policy violation.”
When there is a lack of safe space for meaningful conversation, by the time an issue does reach formal investigation, permanent damage has occurred, whether that is between employees, teammates, students that share residence halls, or other classmates. The essential question, posed by Maldonado, is how that harm can be mitigated or repaired.
Draper adds that because of the intimidation of using institutional barriers to resolve issues, there often is hesitation around addressing conflicts or conversations around difference. Through a program with a restorative lens, the department hopes to create comfort in “having these conversations, while understanding and empathizing with other people’s perspectives and values.”
One source for restorative justice and resolution services is the development of peer mediators.
Peer mediators would be responsible for handling roommate disagreements, shuttle diplomacy and other resolution methods that feel more approachable and less stressful for the individuals involved. Draper believes the College’s Community Advisors could be trained as mediators who “hear both students out, bring them together, resolve [the conflict], and work on building respect and repair.”
Maldonado said that there should be an environment where values may be drastically different, “but we still hold a level of understanding and respect.” To this, Draper highlights that in an era of divisive social media and technology inhibiting our communication skills, these types of environments are needed more than ever, since the black-and-white idea of vehemently agreeing or disagreeing is simply “not the reality of a student’s experience.”
The overall goal of restorative justice is to still recognize the harm that was dealt in a conflict, but encourage students to seek coexistence and repair rather than punishment. For this to happen, Draper emphasizes, inner narratives must be reframed. “Even if we are not friends after it, I want us to come to an understanding of the situation that happened,” she explained.
Over the coming weeks, the Division of Inclusive Excellence will be holding focus groups that discuss the means by which these newly introduced methods could operate, and how it can best be integrated and advertised among the student body. “Although we can assume what the students need, we are not the students, we are not the ones that are living on campus, and we are not the ones that may have had to go through a disciplinary process,” Maldonado said.
This new means of conflict resolution can improve the campus as a community. “We are developing our students to have a level of resiliency when there is conflict happening,” Maldonado notes. For this to happen, it takes the voice of the students to talk about how these new systems can work.
A Google Form is attached to the email sent out by the College’s Division of Inclusive Excellence with more information and focus group sign-up dates currently available. In these groups, students will be able to voice personal experiences and opinions on how these new measurements could operate. By participating, students can make their voice heard and create a brighter future for the campus.
