Guide for Leading a Divided Campus Urges Role for Ombuds

"Leading a Divided Campus: Ideas and Illustrations" offers guidance for campus leaders seeking to to deepen their support of students and to reinforce norms of humane behaviors in the midst of vigorous disagreements. The fourth edition of the guide from The Ohio State University Moritz College of Law (with support from AAA-ICDR Foundation) was just released. The recommendations now include an active role for campus Ombuds, drawing on work by the Ombuds at Kenyon, Carrie Knell, and Brandeis, Don Greenstein. 

Excerpt: 

Non-credit events: Augmenting credit opportunities with non-credit learning opportunities will help to scale up student involvement in learning, as well as bring isolated students into discussions with each other. Illustrations include: 

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• Learning opportunities for those requesting them: For example, the Kenyon College’s Ombuds staff offers short workshops on facilitating group dialogue, basic mediation techniques, dealing with difficult colleagues, having hard conversations, collaborative problem solving, active listening, and de-escalating tense situations. In addition, the Ombuds website offers “two-minute tips” -- checklists and phrases that might help on a number of these topics. 

“The difference a listening circle made at Brandeis University is it allowed all participants to share their views on difficult and emotional topics without cross talk or an argumentative conversation. All individuals left feeling validated, heard and valued. There were a few circles where people had very different outlooks and still they felt their perspective was valuable to be shared.” – Don Greenstein, Ombuds 

The full guide is available for download. (Leading a Divided Campus.)