St. Cloud Times — Confidentiality. Quality of process. Impartiality. Conflict of interest. Competence.
Those were the words scribbled across the chalkboard in a St. Cloud State University classroom March 21.
Beside them:
I am a qualified mediator under rule 114 of the Minnesota General Rule of Practice.
In three chairs — one in the middle, two facing each other — sit a middle-aged Somali man playing a 20-something college student, a St. Cloud State communications professor playing an elderly neighbor and a Conflict Resolution Center director playing a mediator.
They are discussing the loudness and late hour of a (pretend) college party.
As the situation plays out, Karmit Bulman, the mediator, calls pause to ask observers what she’s doing wrong and what she’s doing right in the situation.
It’s part of the training that will allow Somali elders to mediate disputes within and beyond their communities. Organizers think it’s one way to resolve conflicts and structural problems, like those that emerged at Technical High School two weeks ago.
