Conflict resolution on minds of Somalis, administrators

St. Cloud Tech students gather Wednesday outside the school. More than 100 students and a few parents were involved in a protest. Photo: Dave Schwarz, [email protected])

By Stephanie Dickrell
Friday, March 20, 2015

advertisements

Even before students left Technical High School to protest racially charged incidents, conflict resolution was on the minds of school administrators and Somali elders.

The satellite office of the Conflict Resolution Center at St. Cloud State University helped create two pilot programs where local people are learning to resolve conflicts in new ways. One involves junior high students; another is tied to the court system.

The CRC expanded to St. Cloud in 2013, Executive Director Karmit Bulman said. Services include mediation, which could solve conflicts like those at Tech High School before they escalate.

Bulman said Thursday the CRC would like to work with Tech High School to resolve conflict. It would like to make sure the students are being heard and the administrators feel they can work to address students' needs.

The first mediation session between students at South Junior High took place just two days before the protests. The sessions grew out of discussions last summer between CRC and South Junior High administrators.

The CRC has 32 years working with young people, many of which involve cross cultural issues, she said. That includes a robust middle and high school mediation program in the Twin Cities, with good outcomes, Bulman said.

The program uses trained mediators to work through issues with students. Many mediators have gone through conflict resolution training at St. Cloud State University.

In those sessions, students participate voluntarily to come up with the solution. The mediator guides them in the process.

"All we do is promote and create an atmosphere where both parties can feel equally heard," said Roseanna Ross, communication studies professor, mediator and coordinator of the SCSU Employee Mediation Program.

"What often happens, in that process, they hear each other, with facilitator support, see where they have common interests, and mutually come together to solve a problem," she said.

In the second program, Somali elders from the Community Grassroots Solutions group reached out to receive mediation training from Jeff Ringer, professor and chair of St. Cloud State's Department of Communication Studies and volunteer mediator.

The group wanted to be able to mediate disputes in the court system. They saw a need for that in their community.

In order for judges to refer cases to them, they need training that qualifies them for the state's roster of mediators.

So this semester, a group of 12 — eight men and four women — has been coming to St. Cloud State on Saturdays to learn and practice their mediation skills.

The learning is going both ways, however.

"They have a cultural way of dealing with conflict that is different from Western culture," Ringer said. Conflicts go to elders in a community where they serve as judges to settle disputes.

Ringer has worked with mediation students to help them learn to resolve conflict in ways consistent with values of the community.

But the Conflict Resolution Center is just getting started. It hopes to be more involved in the local court system and possibly develop a restorative justice program, Bulman said.

Meanwhile, the Somali elders will finish their training this Saturday and mediation continues at South Junior High on Monday.

Home
Email

Hiiraan Online