The Campus Mediation Center began in the fall of 1996. The primary goals of the Center are to: educate the UWM community about dispute resolution, create relevant courses across the curricula that emphasize dispute resolution, illustrate the application of conflict skills, provide mediation services for the University and surrounding community using community and university resources and increase the pool of volunteer community mediators through training seminars and workshops. The Milwaukee Foundation provided twenty thousand dollars to create a mediation center at UWM using the expertise and knowledge of personnel from the Milwaukee Mediation Center. Practitioners from the community are the base for our pool of mediators, in addition to mentoring UWM students as their mediation skills develop.

In three years, approximately one hundred and fifty students have participated in mediation training during summer and weekend workshops. A graduate certificate program in mediation and negotiation has been created by three departments: Communication, Human Resources and Labor Relations and Business Administration. This collaborative effort within the University illustrates the interest and actual support of dispute resolution systems. In addition the Campus Mediation Center fields approximately 25 calls per week from the University and the community at large about various disputes involving landlord/tenant, neighbors, workplace, family and dormitory conflicts. In 1996/97, the Center conducted 25 mediations in which all but 2 reached agreement. The case load has almost doubled in the 1997/98 year. Clients report that agreements are upheld and that they are satisfied with the mediation process and the services they received.