March 1, 2001

Dear Colleague:

I would like to tell you about a wonderful collaborative endeavor that took place this year between Skidmore College and MWI.  With grant funding from the Mellon Foundation, Skidmore was able to sponsor its first Conflict Resolution Institute for students, faculty and administrative staff.  With MWI's expertise and enthusiastic partnership, we were able to accomplish all of the goals we set for this new initiative.  We are truly excited by what this Institute affords our campus for the future, and are deeply grateful to MWI for helping us to make it possible.

We wanted to do many things in this conflict resolution program:  instruct students in conflict-resolution/negotiation; enhance students' ability to form strong interpersonal relationships; improve community relations, particularly around issues of diversity; and provide a mechanism by which other members of the College community could benefit from the work of the Institute's participants.  It seemed an overwhelming set of tasks at first, but MWI was able to organize our expectations and ideas into a coherent program design that was responsive to Skidmore's needs and interests.

A half-day consultative campus visit held in October allowed MWI to become better acquainted with Skidmore.  MWI representatives interviewed a number of student affairs staff, faculty and students to gather information regarding conflict challenges we face on campus and to discuss our vision and goals for the Institute.  From this visit, MWI was able to design a two-part program that consisted of a one-and-a-half day skills building workshop in November and a second one-and-a-half day train the trainer workshop in January.  Thus, we were able to begin the process of conflict-resolution instruction for an initial group of 15 students and 6 faculty and staff members, and, in addition, train this same group of participants to teach conflict resolution skills to other community members in the future.

MWI trainers did an extraordinary job of facilitating the multiple aspects of the Institute.  Participants engaged in a variety of highly interactive, hands-on learning exercises that combined theory and practical application through the use of case simulations, most of which were customized to address campus-specific issues.  Our work was intense, enjoyable and ultimately rewarding.  Students, in particular, commented on the substantive quality of the Institute and how much more empowered they felt to resolve their own conflict situations.  Indeed, they are wholly charged to organize themselves as a chartered campus group to bring conflict resolution skills training to the Skidmore community at-large.

My own interactions with MWI were nothing less than professionally stimulating and personally satisfying.  I found our collaboration at every step to be mutually respectful and a nice balance of give-and-take.  MWI was fully committed to helping us define, design and deliver this unique program and continues to express genuine interest in our future success with conflict resolution training.

I recently submitted the Summary Report of Skidmore's Conflict Resolution Institute to President Jamienne S. Studley and informed trustees about the program during their February Board meeting on campus.  I spoke with pride and confidence of the Institute's far-reaching impact on student growth and community building.  MWI's role in producing this major first step with us cannot be minimized.  I highly recommend the excellent services of MWI to my college and university colleagues who are considering developing conflict resolution programs on their campuses.

Sincerely,

Anita L. Steigerwald
Associate Dean of Student Affairs & Dean for First-Year Students

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