The PhysREFs initiative, in conjunction with the Physics Grad Council and Columbia's Ombuds Office, invites all physics graduate students to attend a workshop on conflict resolution and mediation on Wednesday, October 5th from 3:30-5pm in the theory center. This workshop is the first in a series of three, with the focus of this session being how to resolve conflict between graduate students and the undergraduate students they teach or mentor.

At this workshop, we will be joined by Marilyn Molina and Jeimy Batista from Columbia’s Ombuds Office, who will provide information on identifying types of interpersonal conflict, as well as equip us with communication tips for challenging conversations. The majority of this session will include an interactive role-playing activity where participants will get the opportunity to work through hypothetical scenarios in small groups using the mediation techniques learned in the session. We hope that this conflict resolution and mediation workshop will benefit all graduate students, particularly those who interact often with undergraduate students in the department.

This workshop will be presented in a hybrid format, with Marilyn and Jeimy joining and presenting via Zoom.