September 19, 2014

Dear Colleague:

We are writing to tell you about a new Faculty Mediation Program that is now available as part of the Faculty Grievance Policy. The purpose of this new program is to provide faculty with an informal option to resolve disputes with their department or school chairs, or other administrators. The program will be administered through the Faculty Senate and detailed information will be available on the Senate website.

At present, there is one certified mediator in each college. For 2014-15, they are: Larry Hatab (Arts and Letters), Lynn Tolle (Health Sciences), James Paulson (Sciences), Greg Selby (Engineering and Technology), Bruce Rubin (Business) and Nina Brown (Education).

A faculty member who is having a dispute may seek counsel from any of the mediators and if it seems that mediation is needed, the faculty member will complete a form that can be obtained from the Senate website and send it to Nina Brown. She will assign two mediators to work with the parties to resolve the dispute. Neither of the mediators will come from the college of the faculty member who is involved in the dispute.

We hope that this new mediation process will allow faculty concerns to be handled, and resolved, in a more informal manner. However, if the mediation is not successful, the faculty member may proceed to formal resolution by submitting the matter to the Faculty Grievance Committee.

Sincerely,

John R. Broderick, President

Paul J. Champagne, Chair of the Faculty Senate