ADR for the University

Interesting article this morning from Inside Higher Ed about how one university is utilizing alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms in order to avoid a high profile clash between the university president and its faculty.

The story centers in on the State Univerity of New York College of Technology at Alfred where the university president and the faculty were in conflict over the president's perceived domineering management style. As with other recent high profile cases, the faculty was about to vote no confidence on the president's leadership of the university.

Instead, the parties were able to step back from the brink:

aided by an unusual process in which SUNY’s systemwide faculty group stepped into the fray to help resolve the dispute. A visiting team’s highly critical report offered both stinging criticism (for all parties) and a set of recommendations for improving campus governance, one of which called for a seasoned administrator to spend six months on the campus as a mediator.

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To look forward rather than merely back, the University Faculty Senate’s visitation team offered a set of recommendations for both the Alfred State senate and the administration. But its central theme was that Gupta, who had been a technology dean at the University of Houston before becoming Alfred State’s president, had put together a “relatively young and novice administration” that needed experience and stability.

It offered several options for fixing that problem, and last month, the chancellor of the SUNY system, John R. Ryan — who until then had stayed on the sidelines of the process — stepped in and chose one. He appointed Anne Huot, the SUNY system’s executive vice provost for academic affairs, to spend six months on the Alfred State campus as a mediator, to help administrators and faculty leaders work together.

So obvious, yet ingenious.  It is a wonder that other dysfunctional universities have not used such ADR mechanims in the past to overcome their turbulent times. 

It also provides an object lesson for all employers with disgruntled employees. Sometimes, it is worthwhile to take a step back and have an objective observer diagnose and help mediate the problems an organization is having.

PS