Office of the Associate  Deans of the College 270 Mohegan Ave. New London, Connecticut 06320-4196

March 22, 2000

Dear Colleague:

For six years I have been the director of Connecticut College's voluntary inter-session program, held every January.  I believe that the success of the entire program has been due in very large part to the energy and creativity of MWI.

Let me explain. Our program, known to students simply as "Dean's Term," is usually comprised of five or six non-credit workshops. Most of these workshops have maximum limits of 12 or 15 participants, but the two workshops that MWI contributes to Dean's Term--"Mediation" and "Negotiation"--have much larger capacities and thus enroll the vast majority of students who participate. The other workshops are frequently facilitated by one person, but with MWI I get a team of teachers, teaching assistants, and support staff for each workshop and in my experience "the team approach" has delivered a high-quality product every time.

The written evaluations students fill out praise MWI in enthusiastic terms: a few days ago one caught my eye that reads "Absolutely excellent. I liked the Mediation Workshop so much that I have chosen conflict resolution as a career path." Working with MWI I always feel confident that I can have both quantity and quality. Dean's Term itself is judged by the number of students I enroll and by the experience that students report through evaluations. So long as MWI remains willing to sign contracts with me to offer one or more workshops, I can be certain that dean's Term will be a big success. I highly recommend MWI to any college or university considering introducing its students to the exciting field of conflict resolution.

Sincerely,

Philip E. Ray

Associate Dean of the College
Associate Professor of English

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