Gonzales says, however, that the addition oftrained mediators would be helpful for conflictsin the upper-class houses. She also says she hopesthe race relations tutors will still be animportant part of dealing with issues of raceamong students.
"I'm not sure that putting all theresponsibility on student mediators is the bestthing," Laird says. "I think certainly that tutorsand older folks would have a little morecredibility."
But Epps and other tutors says that usingstudent-mediators isn't such a gamble.Undergraduates could breathe new life into the oldways of dealing with race relations, the deansays.
"Undergraduates can be extraordinary," saysEpps. "Adults often tend to be stuck in their oldways."
Epps is confident that students, includingfirst-years, can mediate conflicts. He says thatstudent mediators will even be able to intervenein areas such as police and community relations, apriority on Epps' list of target organizationsneeding mediators.
"I think it is absolutely kosher for studentsto mediate," he says. "People are coming into thiscollege who have extraordinary experiencealready."
Winthrop House race relations tutor Naomi Andresays she believes that the involvement of studentmediators from outside the house poses potentialdifficulties.
But she thinks peer counseling could be anextremely effective way of resolving some issuesin the houses.
"In the Confederate flagdebate that arose inthe past in Kirland House in which a student hungthe flag outside her window, it would have beenhelpful to have people trained in resolution,"Andre says.
Three years ago, Brigitte M. Kerrigan '91 hunga Confederate flag out of her Kirkland House room.The flag sparked campus debate as well as strongcriticism from the BSA, which asserted that theflag represented slavery.
What it Takes
The criteria for selection includes commitment,communications skills, exhibited maturity andprior experience in dealing with conflicts of raceand related issues, Epps says.
Students interested in becoming a mediator mustfill out an application consisting of fourquestions and an essay, which "measures yourability to be articulate about [the race] issue,"Epps says.
"We want people who have had some experience inthe past or who have knowledge on the race issue,"Rosigliono says.
Epps says he plans to select a few students tobe a part of the selection board, made up ofmembers of the Negotiations Project, ConflictManagement Group, and Conflict Management Inc."We've had a fair amount of interest from people,"Epps says about the application process. "I evenknow Deans of Students at other schools that wouldlike to take the training."
He says the training is available to the wholeuniversity but will focus on the College.
Epps says that he plans to interview studentsto make the final cuts for the program.
Despite the limit of the number of students whocan participate in the program, Epps says heencourages all students to apply, includingseniors.
"Increasingly, this society is turning tomediation for disputes," Epps said. "If [students]are trained as mediators they will be able tosettle disputes in jobs they take after Harvard.