Higher Education

Colleges and Universities are Communities – Conflicts are Natural

Like all communities, public and private colleges and universities will naturally experience conflicts arising from competing interests, limited resources, and inherent imbalances in power, authority, and responsibility. Students, faculty, staff and administrators are all essential to the community, each depending on and supporting each other in fundamental ways.

This interdependence can lead to deeply fulfilling experiences and connections that enrich everyone’s lives and sustain the community. But it can also lead to feelings of vulnerability, frustration and even anger that pit individuals and groups against each other and erode the trust that holds the community together.

We help public and private colleges and universities navigate conflicts, solve problems, rebuild relationships, and restore trust.

Some common areas of conflict where we can help include:

Student Matters

State and federal civil actions in tort, contract, civil rights (e.g., Title IX, Title VII, 504, 1983)
Student discipline and Code of Conduct enforcement
Academic integrity
Student speech and assembly
Financial aid disputes
ADA accommodations
Privacy (FERPA, HIPAA, FOIA, right-to-know)
Athletic matters (eligibility, scholarships, etc.)
Fraternities and Sororities
Student Activities / Activism

Faculty Matters

Disputes concerning the hiring, firing, retention, promotion and discipline of faculty and staff
Tenure Disputes
Racial/Sexual/Age/Religious Discrimination and Hostile Workplace claims
ADA accommodations
Academic integrity and ethics
Intellectual property
Freedom of speech and expression

Institutional Decision-Making and Policy Matters

Disputes between Trustees and administration, taxpayers, community, students, concerning institutional policies and budgetary issues
Vendor contract disputes
Governmental disputes (e.g., zoning, land use, environmental impact, regulatory compliance)
Collective bargaining negotiations
Institutional liability for on-campus crimes, injuries, property damage
Disputes between/among Trustees

It Takes One to Know One

My mediation and dispute resolution practice focuses exclusively on conflicts arising in public and private K-12 schools, colleges, and universities. I chose this focus because I am a product of public and private school education, and because I have dedicated my entire professional career to education and education law.

My empathy and efficacy in higher education conflict resolution comes from my professional and person experience and expertise as:

A Law Clerk for a University’s Office of General Counsel

An Attorney for College and University Students

An Attorney for Colleges and Universities

An Adjunct Professor of Law

Josh Kershenbaum

Mediator, Conflict Coach, Resolution Consultant

Josh Kershenbaum is a mediator and conflict resolution consultant with more than 20 years of professional experience in education and education law.

Learn More About:

Mediation

The best solutions meet everyone’s interests. We help you identify and communicate what you really need, so you’ll never compromise on what matters most.

Conflict Coaching

The strongest negotiators do the hardest work before getting to the table. Conflict Coaching helps you clarify your interests, understand your alternatives, and anticipate obstacles, preparing you to be your most effective advocate.

Meeting Facilitation

When your team invests the time and resources to gather, it deserves the best opportunity to experience success together. Meeting Facilitation helps keep teams focused, productive, engaged and united in purpose.

Training

Individual and group conflict coaching and topical seminars for education professionals and students.

“Many people today agree that we need to reduce violence in our society. If we are truly serious about this, we must deal with the roots of violence, particularly those that exist within each of us. We need to embrace ‘inner disarmament,’ reducing our own emotions of suspicion, hatred and hostility toward our brothers and sisters.”

Dalai Lama XIV

“The most tragic cause of social disharmony is when the speed with which people find mistakes of others outweighs their simple belief that they too are infallible!”

Israelmore Ayivor

“Each conflict is self conflict.”

Raphael Zernoff

“The worst battle you’ll have to fight is between what you know and how you feel.”

Turcois Ominek

“During the flames of controversy, opinions, mass disputes, conflict, and world news, sometimes the most precious, refreshing, peaceful words to hear amidst all the chaos are simply and humbly ‘I don’t know.”

Criss Jami

“Asking why you should retaliate often solves the problem better than retaliation itself.”

Innocent Mwatsikesimbe

“We usually learn from debates that we seldom learn from debates.”

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The world is an arena where things represent things. It is a stage where the same thing is seen from different lenses as a different thing.”

Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Before reacting to any conflicting situation in life. Ask yourself a simple question: ‘You want to be happy or you want to be right?“

Aditya Ajmera

“Conflict occurs everywhere except in the cemetery. Everyone experiences conflict except the dead. Thankful for being alive…”

Assegid Habtewold

“History is littered with the wars everybody knew could never happen.”

Enoch Powell

“We seldom learn much from someone with whom we agree.”

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“We fight because we fail to understand why really we fight.”

Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Conflict is not necessarily bad. If you can avoid taking conflict personally, it is actually a way to get better decisions and better results.”

Sonali Sinha

“You can teach people everything except how to get along.”

Marty Rubin

“Real conflicts between two people, those which do not serve to cover up or to project, but which are experienced on the deep level of inner reality to which they belong, are not destructive. They lead to clarification, they produce a catharsis from which both persons emerge with more knowledge and more strength.”

Erich Fromm

“Half of the conflicts in your head get resolved when you seek to understand instead of seeking to be understood.”

Nitya Prakash

“They began to fight, ’cause they didn’t know each other’s stories.“

Jaco Strydom

“You can observe a lot by just watching.”

Yogi Berra

“The source of all the conflicts in the world is in trying to convince everyone that you’re always correct.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo

“People may not remember what you said, but they will remember how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou

“Discord is harder to end then to begin.”

Edmund Spenser

“Ten per cent of conflict is due to difference of opinion. Ninety per cent is due to wrong tone of voice.”

Ritu Ghatourey

“It is a fact that the bitterest contradictions and the deadliest conflicts of the world are carried on in every individual breast capable of feeling and passion.”

Joseph Conrad

“In some ways, we will always be different. In other ways, we will always be the same. There is always room to disagree and blame, just as there is always room to take a new perspective and empathize. Understanding is a choice“

Vironika Tugaleva

“Perhaps one day, all these conflicts will end, and it won’t be because of great statesmen or churches or organizations like this one. It’ll be because people have changed.“

Kazuo Ishiguro

“What would you have? Your gentleness shall force More than your force move us to gentleness.“

William Shakespeare

“Do not think of knocking out another person’s brains because he differs in opinion from you. It would be as rational to knock yourself on the head because you differ from yourself ten years ago.“