Volunteers keep an eye on campus events
■The Office of Student Life sponsors a program to have
neutral observers at campus events in case of trouble
By Lisa Toth
Oregon Daily Emerald
They’re watching us.
The Neutral Observer Program
of the Office of Student Life pro
vides trained student and faculty
volunteer observers at campus
events to allow for the availabili
ty of unbiased witnesses should
any form of escalation arise.
“The idea of the program is to
have trained non-participating
observers at events on campus,
like protests, demonstrations and
sit-ins,” said Annie Bentz, direc
tor of Conflict Resolution Ser
vices. “The role of the observer is
to stay uninvolved with the actu
al event and to observe the activi
ty of students, [Office of Public
Safety], the community and the
police. So if there is any kind of
escalation or critical incident, be
ing a situation where there is po
tential harm to people or proper
ty, then the observer writes up a
report of what they see.”
Conflict Resolution Services
offers mediation and facilitation
service and training related to
conflict resolution for students,
faculty and staff.
Bentz said observers are often
necessary in situations where
there are differing perspectives,
high emotion and high energy.1
Observers are only asked to ob
serve in situations where they'
feel that they can be objective.
Reports by observers are only
released for legitimate reasons,
such as a violation of the law,
and may be used in the event
that action is taken, such as
when a person presses charges
against another person or group.
The Neutral Observer Program
was established at the University
in 1990 as a pilot program
through the Office of the Dean of
Student Life.
Currently, the program is coor
dinated by Conflict Resolution
Services. It is modeled after simi
lar programs at the University of
California at Berkeley and the
University of Colorado, which
were developed in the 1960s.
Observers are trained to make
behavioral observations rather
than judgments or interpreta
tions. Bentz said other campuses
have noted that having impartial
observers present at events can
have a calming effect on partici
pants. Observers are identifiable
at campus events by their bright
yellow badges.
Observers have been present at
events including the Worker
Rights Consortium protests this
April and the Johnson Hall sit-in
May 18, 1999, when demonstra
tors demanded the improvement
of campus diversity.
Next fall, volunteer observers
will participate in five hours of
training to gain necessary obser
vation skills to have an objective
perspective about an event.
Chris Loschiavo, the director
of Student Judicial Affairs, said
that he assists Bentz in training
the neutral observers to write a
report from a neutral standpoint
and helps them to develop obser
vation skills.
Aside from the Neutral Ob
server Program, Loschiavo also
trains student resident assistants
to write conduct reports.
Bentz said that observers are
taught that when they are ap
proached by people involved they
are instructed to be respectful, to
give out information about the
Neural Observer Program and to
have minimal engagement with
the questioner. This allows them
to focus on observing the event.
At the WRC rally in April, San
dra Liu, a neutral observer and
graduating master’s student in
the Creative Writing Program,
said that the older observers were
often approached more than the
student observers.
“As an outside observer, it
seemed ironic because we were
there to observe and perceive,
and what turned out to be a diffi
culty was the perception of us,”
Liu said. “I didn’t expect us to be
perceived.”
Liu added that she would en
courage students to get involved
in the program because the ob
servers ensure that students re
ceive fair treatment.
r
“The term ‘neutral’ is question
able,’’ Bentz said. “We can do our
best to be as unbiased, as objec
tive and as descriptive in our ob
servations as possible.”
Currently, this year’s team of
10 volunteers consists of faculty,
staff, graduate students and one
undergraduate student. Bentz
said that Conflict Resolution Ser
vices is looking for 15 to 20 ob
servers for next year.
Director of Resource Manage
ment with Public Affairs Greg
Stripp, a volunteer for the pro
gram, said he became involved
with the Neutral Observer Pro
gram at the University partly be
cause he witnessed a similar pro
gram that oversaw the police and
National Guard at UC-Berkeley
in the mid-1960s.
Stripp was an observer at the
WRC protest. He said that no crit
ical incidents occurred while he
was observing, and consequently,
no reports were filed. Regardless,
he stressed the significance of be
ing a volunteer in the program.
“It’s really important for volun
teers to come forward from all
groups on campus to lend more
credibility to the program,”
Stripp said.
In the future, Stripp said a sim
ilar program could appear in the
i
Eugene community as well. Pre
liminary talks began on May 9 be
tween Stripp, Bentz and Greg
Rikhoff, a manager in human
rights for the city of Eugene, to
discuss implementing a Neutral
Observer Program in the city.
Th
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