University Mediation Services is holding Mediation Awareness Days this week to inform the University community about its services and mediation in general.
The two aspects of UMS are service and education, the latter of which is the overall purpose of MAD, Director of Public Relations Zoe Neale said. She explained that MAD is intended to publicize the concept of mediation in general, as well as "presenting it as a resource for students and [promoting] our own visibility of UMS to the University community."
UMS works to accomplish this through a variety of events. Earlier this week, UMS held a charity bake sale on the Lawn, benefiting the Mediation Center of Charlottesville, and distributed promotional lollipops with attached "mediation quotes" and the address of the UMS Web site, Coordinator Lauren Catlett said.
Last night, UMS hosted an Open Mic Night, co-sponsored with University Programs Council, and tomorrow UMS will sponsor a lecture.
Tanya Denckla Cobb, associate director of the Institute for Environmental Negotiation, will speak at 7 p.m. in Clark Hall 101, discussing environmental mediation. She will speak about issues of food and land usage, cases in which there are "so many parties involved" that mediation is the only way to reach a resolution, Neale said.
Catlett said the lecture, which UMS hopes to see receive a turnout of 20 to 40 people, is part of UMS' work to establish a link between mediation and sustainability.
"Obviously the environment is a really popular issue, especially at U.Va. right now," she said.
This is the first time that the Mediation Awareness Days have featured a connection to a charity and a speaker, Catlett said, and it is also the first time they have been held during the fall semester. In the past, the days occurred only during the spring, but UMS could not see any reason not to organize them in the fall as well, she said.
The spring 2009 mediation awareness days "did a good job" of raising awareness, a fact reflected in increased applicants for mediation services, Neale said. Similarly, to gauge the success of the fall MAD's programs, "It'll really be telling in the coming months," she said, "[in] seeing how many people come to University Mediation Services"
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