Understanding Conflict
Depending on your point of view, you may embrace conflict as a good thing—something that enhances your educational experience or supports our democratic society. Or you may try to avoid conflict at all costs. But let’s face one fact: on a college campus where a diverse group of students is pursuing individual education goals as well as learning to live together, conflict will exist.
University campuses are places where people from different disciplines, personal points of view, cultures, ages, and experiences must relate to one another in classrooms, meeting rooms, lounges, residence halls, sports arenas, and outdoor spaces. In addition to the exchange of ideas and opinions that occurs in the classroom and elsewhere, people on college campuses will clash over ordinary daily interactions with one another as well as the interpretation and application of policies and rules.
It’s important to provide support so that conflict doesn’t escalate to cause distrust, fear, or violent behavior within the university setting. At Ball State, we have many ways to
respond to and address conflict.