project summary
executive summary
facilitation institute
a substantive proposal for the pilot of a deeply integrated, interdisciplinary institute for facilitation training on campus in lieu of the establishment of a dedicated physical and personnel committed to overseeing these kinds of training and services.
rj and conflict resolution services on campus
the combination of research from higher education with robust restorative justice and conflict resolution capacities, and insights from the college’s past needs, into a clear and succinct proposal on reframing and constructing new mechanisms within current college administration to account for a focused emphasis on restorative justice and conflict resolution benefits.
recommendations and next steps
a substantive proposal for the pilot of a deeply integrated, interdisciplinary institute for facilitation training on campus. this part will act as the cumulative description of the proposed pilots to execute and facilitate the findings from each section.
comprehensive approach
when first conceived it was imperative to develop this reference to understand the summary of work, the outcomes and the intention of the process from the following triad:
person-to-person
a/ establishes a dedicated volunteer corps, who is trained and educated in restorative justice facilitation, and has the capacity to offer and manage sessions between campus members, utilizing these reconciliatory principles.
person-to-institution
a/ provides remediation services for individuals who identify as being negatively impacted by a college policy or set of events. offers an ad hoc committee to liaise, and deliberate between campus entities in perceived and observed conflict.
institution-to-person
a/ researches, examines, and proposes a set of guiding principles to articulate the College’s commitment to considering a transformative and healing justice framework for all conflict-based and decision-making processes and that enacts authority over campus members.
project stages
stage i: learning
a personal downloading of existing facilitation material, programming, research, and plans.
outcomes>
lessons learned from this stage include:
1. restorative justice and conflict resolution training has been offered as a set of training from the office of inclusive excellence.
2. there is no formal or explicit place to receive ongoing training in restorative justice and conflict resolution.
3.there are an array of faculty and staff with former restorative justice of conflict resolution training.
4. faculty and staff with this formal training do not have avenues or pathways to further develop these skill sets.
5. amongst those faculty and staff with formal training, some utilize their expertise as consultant services in their non-College related work.
6. students offered restorative justice and conflict resolution training should not be expected to perform or exceed novice level training.
7. swarthmore college used to have a “mediation clinic” a near twenty years ago that offered ongoing conflict resolution and restorative justice mediation services.
8. peace and conflict studies faculty have been interested in leveraging some of their expertise, while limited, to offer services to students to better mediate and constructively work through campus politics and areas of conflict.
9. student involvement and awareness of protocol for campus safety is greatly encouraged and actively sought by the Public Safety officials.
10. faculty development is conceived in a wide, and broad manner that could allow for restorative justice and conflict resolution based training.
11. student resident peer life (rpls) representatives do not actively participate in restorative justice or conflict resolution training in their mandatory orientation, but coordinators are excited to offer this.
12. there is a sense of overload in regards to offered programming and training for DEI related capacities.
13. athletics, as a department reports to the Provost’s Office but has only recently been formally engaged by that Office to augment DEI related training and mediation between student-athletes and coaching staff.
14. college deans are involved in some form of mediation and conflict resolution on a case-by-case basis, based on student need and ask (i.e. academic conflict with faculty, issues with access to disability services, formal code of conduct mediation, etc.).
15. the provost office works with internal conflict with staff, faculty, and administration; and there are codified laws to ensure mediation is just and fair.
16. there are mandatory and offered training that are administered in the onboarding process with hiring new staff or faculty. restorative justice and conflict resolution training has been offered as a set of training from the office of inclusive excellence.
stage ii: studying
identifying gaps and spaces of improvement in existing healing justice work; and seeking to conduct research, analysis, and develop propositions important additions to existing programming.
these areas of improvability include:
logistical and administrative
the internalization of the associate dean of faculty for diversity, recruitment, and retention to report to the assistant vice president and dean of inclusive excellence and community development.
the creation and build out of the assistant vice president and dean of inclusive excellence and community development to report directly to the president.
the creation of current hr on-boarding to also include de&i training.
the integration and explicit framing of professional development and diversity, equity and inclusion.
restorative justice and conflict resolution
short-term
the creation of a multi-tiered and multi-dimensional facilitation institute centered on transitional justice, offered to college members and community to be trained and exercised throughout the year.
long-term
In collaboration with the office of inclusive excellence and community development, and the program in peace and conflict studies to grow the capacities for restorative justice and conflict resolution expertise through: research funding, enrichment opportunities for students, and mediation clinics for the college campus.
the development of an active, transparent, accountable, and democratic archive of campus protest and conflict to serve as a history of events and a means of learning to inform future mediation of conflict.
macro-level
the creation of a physical space, dedicated, small team staff accountable to the office of inclusive excellence and community development to serve as “restorative learning and practices service” for the instruction, training, and service providing expertise in transitional justice.
stage iii: conducting
in the second iteration of the inclusive excellence fellowship’s diversity, equity inclusion skills building & training project (facilitation/conflict resolution/restorative justice) “stage one” will act as the pilot for the areas of improvability “logistical and administrative” findings and the “restorative justice and conflict resolution” findings “short term” goal.