Examines the issue of "impartiality" in arbitration. The Minnesota experience regarding the growth of arbitration in both grievance administration and contract negotiations is described. The utility of a raw "win/loss" criterion is questioned. The conditions for impartiality in arbitration and the outlook for same are…

Progress in evaluation of dispute mediation efforts and results of a survey of directors of 95 mediation programs in 25 states are discussed. Thirty-nine directors provided their evaluation instruments. Results provide insights into purposes/contents of evaluations, compliance rates, satisfaction with mediators, mediator effectiveness, and…

Refines phase development in conflict literature by examining divorce mediation sessions to uncover differences in the communicative sequences of agreement and no-agreement mediation. (SR)

Examination of arbitration decisions in Wisconsin teacher wage disputes, 1977-86, found that wage increases agreed to earlier by comparable school districts had a substantial impact on the arbitrators' decisions. (SK)

Surveyed National Association of Student Personnel Administrators member institutions (N=704) to determine existence and characteristics of student affairs mediation programs. Found 29 campuses had established formal mediation programs. Argues that establishing formal mediation programs provides many institutional benefits. (Author/CM)

Discussion of the conflict common in the relationship between a college and its host community looks at some of its common characteristics and at institutional barriers to the use of alternative dispute resolution strategies using a third party. A preventive approach is recommended over reactive forms of resolution, and this approach is…

When teachers at Thomas Gardner Elementary School voted in fall 2003 to join Boston's network of "pilot" schools, they had no inkling of the political firestorm that lay ahead. A few months after they moved to become part of the city's nationally watched experiment with small, autonomous public schools, the president of the Boston Teachers Union…

In this issue we describe a clinical trials study of the impact of adding specific case manager overlay services to "treatment as usual" services for youths in a Juvenile Arbitration Program. In this first article we describe the experimental intervention, the Arbitration Intervention Worker (AIW) service, which was provided to a randomly selected…

Ten years ago I wrote an article on the Children's Order, which was coming into force in Northern Ireland in October 1996. I examined the principles behind the Children's Order and considered how these principles interacted with the practice of family mediation (at that stage I was Coordinator of the Family Mediation service). Since that date…

After examining the case law in this area, the comment concludes that the scope of grievance arbitration should be coextensive with the scope of collective bargaining. This broad scope of grievance arbitration can be achieved without destroying a school board's ability to manage its schools. (Author)

The report examines the use by two state governments of mediation to resolve disputes between schools and parents of handicapped children. Officials, parents, educators, and legal personnel from California and Massachusetts were interviewed, mediations were observed, mediation agreements examined, and statistics reviewed. A typical case…

The purpose of this study is to provide an initial understanding of the dynamics and consequences of collective bargaining at one institution of higher education and provide a base for further research. (Editor/PG)

Professional bargaining in higher education is examined in terms of the labor contract as a legal document, the unsuitability of contracts to deal with qualitative questions, and the strength of the union. It is argued that a labor contract forces two parties into a buyer and seller arrangement; product accountability or quality of education must…

This monograph analyzes the law of fair representation, as applied by the National Labor Relations Board and the courts, and its implications for individuals, union officials, and management. As employees increasingly turn to judicial and administrative agencies to protect their rights, the duty of fair representation has become a doctrine of…

This paper proposes a systematic model for objectively structuring the information exchanged between the bargainers in either the mediation or conciliation processes. The model is intended to be useful to mediators in organizing proposals to use with bargainers. The authors examine possibilities for an educational organization that uses…