Success of Ombudsperson is Catalyst for Expansion
  
by Liz Heron

The climate at Oberlin at times resembles more of a war zone than the peaceful community it strives to be. A little diplomacy can go a long way, and students, faculty and staff are learning that one person is sometimes all it takes.
The person in question is Yeworkwha Belachew, who assumed the role of College ombudsperson last fall. To date, YB, as most people know her, is the sole person dispensing communication advice, but the fledgling program is rapidly expanding with plans to add a roster of student and alumni mediators to its service.
As an ombudsperson, YB functions as an official mediator between or advocate for members of the College community, handling issues such as interpersonal conflicts, unfair treatment, roommate concerns, financial concerns and instructor/student misunderstandings. “One thing I like about the job is seeing individuals having the desire and courage to solve their problem with a little guidance,” she said, adding that it is rewarding to help students who are not always as visible as campus leaders to access and work within the College system. 
Although Oberlin provided a mediation service in the ’80s, the campus had been without one for many years until this fall. Most students looking for help in resolving conflicts went either to ResLife, the judicial coordinator or the office of the dean of students. Since the creation of this new position, Dean Peter Goldsmith has been known to personally walk students in need from his office to YB’s. 
Enthusiasm for the program has proved to be more than expected. “Since [the service] was new to all of us, everyone’s attitude was ‘let’s just wait and see,’” YB said. “I was worried about how I was going to fill my hours, thinking no one would utilize my service.” 
“Early in September, inquiries about the service and requests for resolving issues began coming my way. By October, I was able to help in resolving 20 cases. By December the number grew to 46. By then I was thinking about if the [President Nancy Dye] knew what kind of a wonderful job she had passed my way,” she said.
The peer mediation group, which currently includes 12 students in training, is being helped off the ground by Diane Kenty (OC ’77) and Leah Wing (OC ’84), and expectations are that it will be fully viable by the summer. For now, YB, an administrator who is considered to be exceptionally connected to the student body, is bearing the responsibility of the growing program on her own. 
It wasn’t always a given that YB’s 23-year-long career at Oberlin would continue. For most of her time at the College she worked at Residential Life and Services as one of the College’s few black female administrators, spending the last three years as interim director until the arrival of current Director Kim LaFond. The personnel shifts at Res Life left YB dissatisfied, and there was some question as to her future at Oberlin until she was offered the ombudsperson position by Dye. YB now calls her new position a “dream job.”
“I very much wanted her to stay at Oberlin because she has made so many contributions,” Dye said of YB. “I think that [being ombudsperson] calls upon all of her talents in a way I thought she would enjoy.”
“I believe that YB wants to demonstrate to our community that we can disagree with one another — even strenuously — without undermining our collective life,” Goldsmith said. “To do this, we need to find more honest, more respectful, more reasoned ways of expressing ourselves.”
“There are times when most of us get passionate about something important to us, lose sight of the big picture and stop listening to each other,” YB said. “If there is one defining factor for all of us, it is that we are members of the Oberlin community — we care about this place. If we could give each other time and care about our humanness, Oberlin would be a much better place.” 

Although YB said she has heard some complaints about her neutrality, which she defends, students seem pleased with the service. First-year Alyssa Ronco came to YB after an ongoing conflict with her roommate that resulted in Res Life moving her to temporary housing indefinitely. “[Res Life and I] were pretty much butting heads. They weren’t trying to work with me, and so I went to YB. And it was just like magic,” Ronco said. “They started giving me choices.”