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Student affairs professionals are hard working individuals charged with making lots of things happen all of the time. Our regular tasks include developing programs,mentoring, advising, training student as well as responding to the ever changing needs of students.

Conflict is an inevitable part of life. Sometime it is good and other times it can be a large source of stress for individuals and groups.

For Student Affairs professionals, there are many different constituencies that we have to contend with on a daily basis. There are students, upper level administrators, parents, and other professionals; all of which provide different and unique challenges to the goals and missions we set out to accomplish on a daily basis. Dealing with so many different groups and issues may lead to situations embroiled in conflict of varying degrees and difficulty.

Sometimes, people use conflict as a means to improve or  create things such as relationships and programs. At other times people use conflict in a negative and unintentionally damage things. Still there are those that we work with that intentionally use conflict as a weapon to intimidate or control others. The more you know about conflict and how to use it, the more helpful it can be as a useful tool.

For student affairs professionals conflict is natural and second becomes second nature to us.  How we manage and adapt to it makes a large difference in creating successful outcomes. Properly managing and responding to conflict can actually be an opportunity to strengthen those individuals and groups that you are involved in. When taking the time to familiarize ourselves with concepts, procedures and other tools of the trade, we are better armed when going into a meeting room or training session to better serve our universities and students.

There will be those occasions when even the most prepared group or department gets “stuck” and struggles to make progress towards a goal or outcome. Mediation, when conducted properly works to empower groups and individuals to work past what is hindering them, with the opportunity to create solutions and workable outcomes. Recognizing this need is often the hardest part, but it is also one of the most important. My goal when working with student affairs professionals is help them through the process and identifying the issues, so that in the future mediation becomes more of an intuitive tool that as educators we can pass forward.

As a student affairs professional, I personally have experienced time and time again myself, the need to improve my communication skills, create solutions to problems that seem impossible, and realized when it was time for someone else to step into a situation when someone was needed to mediate a situation.  Recognizing the need to change the status quo  and mindset of how I do my job on a regular basis has helped me and I know that it can help you too.

Growing up the concept that knowledge is power was often a familiar tagline or theme of an after-school PSA, but the fact is that it is true. Every day the more we know, the stronger we are when meeting the challenges placed in front of us.

This is a constantly evolving field and I applaud you for reaching out and beginning the journey!