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Students to learn to run meetings, handle conflict

Conflicts on campus may be a bit more moderate after this weekend.

On Saturday, Feb. 18, professional mediator Annie Tucker will come to Grinnell to perform a three-hour Meeting Facilitation Training at the Chrystal Center. She hopes to teach students how to lead meetings in a productive and respectful manner.

Tucker, who is director of the Iowa City not-for-profit group Mediation Services of Eastern Iowa, has been a mediator for 12 years. She earned her Masters in Conflict Resolution from Antioch in 2001. She uses activities, group discussions, role-playing and other techniques in her training.

"The goals are the same for a facilitator as for a mediator: to better understand nature of a conflict," she said. "I think most people are uncomfortable when a conflict comes up, when people are emotional about their differences. One of the goals is to understand why and how that happens."

Val Vetter, coordinator of the Peace Studies Program, is responsible for bringing Tucker to campus. She says many students have reported feeling their voices are not being heard in meetings of various campus organizations, creating the need for this training. Vetter met Tucker while working at the Iowa Peace Institute.

Linn Davis '08 first suggested the training to Vetter as one of the leaders of the Student Campaign for Increased Political Engagement (SCIPE), as well as a member of the Peace Studies Program. Davis says he noticed that many student-run meetings "weren't being run in the best way." He added that "running a good meeting takes a lot of skill and experience."

The training's usefulness is not necessarily limited to running meetings, says Tucker. "When you learn this, it's a transferable skill for the rest of your life. It helps you be more comfortable when conflict comes up in your personal life."

-Merrick Meyers

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