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Date: Tue, 30 May 95 21:46:02 EST
From: carolorm@MIT.EDU (orme-johnson)
To: mediating@MIT.EDU
Subject: postponing June training

Mediators --

We have decided (in what would certainly be called a "surprise move" if 
it were written up in the Globe) to cancel the June training.  Actually 
we are thinking of it as a postponement with no definite date set yet.  
Those of you who were planning to be observers can erase those dates on 
your calendars.

We had hoped to secure mediation@mit's future by now and to go 
seamlessly on with the June training.  Unfortunately several events we 
had no control over made that impossible, such as having no Dean of UESA 
and no Provost to appoint a dean, the place of mediation in the revised 
student complaint resolution system, and the effects of re-engineering.  
Since we can't hurry those events along, we just have live with the 
uncertainties and to slow down our timetable. 

The consequence of those uncertainties now is that there is no funding 
for mediation@mit, and specifically for mediation training, in place 
beginning July 1.  We intentionally specify *training* because it seems 
certain that offering mediation as an option for resolution of 
student-student disputes will continue in some way.  We have not 
envisioned yet just how that will happen, nor how we will continue the 
monthly meetings, publicity, and other functions that don't fit in the 
category of intake/case coordinating.

Not having those points settled yet, it seemed most important for us to 
focus on them now and not totally absorb ourselves in a training this 
June (neither of us can do anything else when a training is going on).  
We are daring to hope that the training might happen next fall/winter.  
It was a difficult decision to postpone it and involved long, agonizing 
meetings with the Advisory Group.  We don't see this as a setback, just 
an opportunity to do some forward planning.

We really want to emphasize that YOUR help and support have meant a 
great deal to us, and we will continue to call on you in this transition 
time.  We will definitely stay in touch.  THANKS A LOT.

Carol and Laura