Embrace Conflict. Resolve Peacefully.
“It is those who chose the path of peace, I believe, who laid the foundation for real change.” – Morgan Freeman
We (the Office of Student Support & Accountability team) engage in this work because we believe that all people have an inherent right to freedom, that all people are interconnected, and that no one is disposable.
Community Building Practices
We believe that building a strong sense of community can help community members better identify and address conflicts in a way that best serves all who are affected. Said another way, developing strong connections helps build a container that can better handle conflict when it does arise. The offerings below can help your community develop such capacity.
- Consultation on building community in your student group, department, organization, etc.
- Team Building Workshops – we will create a team building workshop for your organization or team to get to know each other’s personal styles and strengths.
- Circle Training – 1, 2 or 3 day workshops on facilitating circles.
Embracing Conflict
People often view conflict as a sign that something is wrong. We believe that conflict is a normal part of human interactions. These offerings can help build your understanding of conflict and build your capacity to address conflicts.
- What is conflict? (YouTube video)
- The Anatomy of Conflict – In order to truly embrace conflict, one must first understand what conflict is, what its root causes are, and how conflict in and of itself is neither inherently good or bad.
- Emotional Intelligence (EI) – This workshop will introduce the concept of EI and discuss the role of EI in effective conflict management. We will also talk about strategies to increase your own EI capacity.
- Understanding Conflict Styles – Everyone approaches conflict differently. This workshop can help you understand the strengths and weaknesses of your own style as well as the styles of those around you. We will also discuss strategies of working with those with different conflict styles.
- Intercultural Competence – Viewing conflict through a multicultural lens.
Resolving Conflict Peacefully
When conflict does occur, these resources will help give you strategies and information to attempt to resolve that conflict peacefully. Not every conflict can be “fixed” but we believe that everyone involved in a conflict can choose to move toward respectful acceptance.
- Having Difficult Conversations – This workshop will talk about practical principles for how to approach difficult conversations. Whether you are a supervisor needing to give constructive feedback to a supervisee, or a roommate needing to talk about the pile of dishes in the sink, this workshop can help.
- Facilitating Restorative Conferences – A 2-day training on facilitating restorative conferences.
- Conflict coaching – consultation designed to help someone handle conflict more effectively on their own.
- Michigan State University workshops and services
- Consult with one of our team members who can help you process a specific conflict, offering suggestions for how to move forward toward resolution.
- Student Rights and Responsibilities at Michigan State University.
- Introduction to campus and community resources for resolving conflicts.
- Understanding the adjudication system.
For questions on any of the above, please call (517) 884-0789.
