Drafting Settlement Disagreements

Katie D.

May 15, 2011 - 4:39 PM

This class has been a serious roller coaster.

I don't usually write about the negative stuff in my blog. I try to blog the way I try to live: focused on the solutions and the good things in life. Aside from that, I also don't feel comfortable writing negative things about professors on this University blog. But sometimes there are bad classes. Sometimes there are conflicts and sometimes I feel almost unbearably frustrated. And, in the occasional scenario, everything ends up working out OK.

The first five weeks of Drafting Settlement Agreements were some of the most unpleasant educational experiences of my life. The problem began with a simple disconnect between the subject matter and the interests and experiences of the CRES cohort. Unlike many past cohorts, most of us do not want to be mediators. We are not in Law School. We are somewhere on the spectrum between family mediation and radical peacemaker. We have a huge variety of passions and experiences, and have become a group that is very much self-aware and self-supporting.

So when we were trapped in a class that is essentially designed to draw up contracts between two parties mid-law suit, many of us felt a little out of our league, and a little disinterested.

It didn't help that our cohort has become accustomed to a full participatory style of learning, complete with frequent questions and the occasional calling-out of our professors when our needs aren't being met. These tendencies, which have worked well in some of our past classes, did not mesh well with our professor's style. She was teaching from the past year's syllabus, and was defensive and evasive of our questions and concerns. She shut several of us down when we asked for more detailed explanations of the homework. For our first assignment, we received no model for a legal Agreement, but were simply told to write a draft of one. One person received an A, while most received a C or below, which is a failing grade at the graduate level.

Many of us were furious. We were confused and angry and offended, and afraid for our grades. We met with the program director, and did not feel much better after the conversation with him. Two Cohort members dropped the class, too overwhelmed and emotional to continue in the situation. Then we actually met as a group with our professor. We brought our concerns to her, and had an emotionally charged discussion of the class and our perceptions.

I left class that week feeling desperate and angry and hopeless.

This week, Drafting Settlement Agreements could not have been more utterly changed. She had heard us. She postponed two due dates, clarified assignments, and changed our final to better reflect our feedback and interests. Most importantly, she apologized to us. She apologized for the misfit between the syllabus and our interests. She apologized for not responding to our initial concerns, and for the poor dynamic that had developed between us. She told us that she really hoped we would learn to write these agreements, and that we would be able to use them in our future work, whatever kind of work that was. She was gracious and kind and responsive.

I don't know that I have ever felt more angry, more shut out, and more powerless than I did in the first weeks of class. And now I feel so affirmed and so supported. I am still shocked at the transformation, and awed by how kind she was in her response. It must have taken enormous courage to stand up for herself in front of almost thirty students, and even more to maintain the integrity of the course while making adjustments in policy and curriculum here at the last moment. Last week at this time, I was still considering dropping the class. I would have said it was hopeless. Now I feel I've learned a valuable lesson. I will not end up writing legal documents for my livelihood. But now I know what one should look like, and I have a sense of the mechanisms for drafting settlements.

Imagine conflict resolution like that happening in the CRES program. It's so cliche it almost hurts to write it. But it's also true, and that gives me a great deal of relief, and hope.