ACTION PLAN - University of Ulster

students understand the ways in which program completion will be both desirable and
rewarding.@ Other tips for mandatory career assessment, updating goals with teachers and
counseling as needed, effective support, quality instruction, and structural elements in a
student retention system are also given and briefly discussed.
What can we do?
This questions is on the Adult Learners Survey and we could include a goal section on
our intake form or have students write their goals. This could be incorporated on the
ULM admission form. Students do have the opportunity to do this if they take a FRYS
course and Goal Setting is taught as given in the Instructor=s manual.
Conflict Management:
What are we doing?
Conflict management is taught in several ways. It may be addressed in individual
sessions with a CASS counselor. In addition, there is a specific FRYS lesson plan for
conflict management. A Conflict Resolution Styles grid is used to teach about
accommodation, collaboration, avoidance, competition and compromise as styles. The
appropriateness and strengths and weaknesses of each are analyzed. Students may
complete How Do You Act in a Conflict for bonus credit and to better understand their
response to conflict.
Each semester a conflict management workshop is offered. This workshop is available to
all ULM students on a first come - first serve basis.
Current Research/Information:
For Administrative Conflict Management - According to Bill Waters in Making the
Case for Campus Mediation (originally published in The Fourth R, Vol. 55, Feb/March
1995) and now available at www.campus-adr.org/CR_Services_Cntr/makecase.html ,
colleges and universities are unique entities when compared to more Arational-purposive@
organizations (such as industry, government bureaus, and business firms). Universities
grapple with rarely having a single clearly articulated mission and thus suffer goal
ambiguity and thus higher degrees of uncertainty and conflict; are Apeople processing@
institutions and clients demand a choice in the decision-making processes; technology is
problematic because it must be holistic and adaptable to a wide range of individual needs;
as professional organizations, employees demand control over institutional decision
processes; and they are becoming increasingly vulnerable to external political, economic,
and demographic pressures which make internal decision making more difficult.
(paraphrased and quoted)
For administrative effectiveness, researchers Cameron & Whetton (1985) have outlined
eight tenets for effectiveness:
!Place emphasis on process and outcome;
!Have low fear of failure, and willingness to take risks;
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