Conflict With a Roommate, Landlord or Coworker?

 The Center for Student Legal Services offers mediation services to help students resolve disputes in a friendly and confidential environment.

Mediation is an informal process during which an impartial third party, called a medi­ator, helps disputing individuals find a mutually acceptable agreement. The goal of mediation is to clarify misunderstandings and to arrive at a solution to which all parties can agree. A mediator is not a judge and does not impose a decision. Instead, the mediator helps those involved in the dispute explain their concerns, understand important issues and arrive at a shared solution.

The Center for Student Legal Services can mediate a wide range of conflicts including landlord/tenant issues, roommate disputes, employer/ employee conflicts, neighbor and community disagreements and other civil matters.

There are many benefits to mediation, including confidentiality and freedom to generate mutually agreeable solutions. Additionally, mediation can promote healthier relation­ships through improved communication and shared problem solving. Mediation is entirely voluntary and many mediation sessions can yield results in 1-2 hours.

 The cost of mediation is already included in the $8 dollar quarterly fee assessed to Ohio University students. Students who have paid the $8 CSLS fee will not pay anything for mediation services, regardless of the length or number of sessions. This makes mediation far more affordable than taking a dispute to court, which can cost hundreds of dollars in court fees. Our trained mediators have flexible hours to help work around your schedule.

For more information about CSLS Mediation Services, or to make an appointment, contact us. 

Meet Our Marketing Interns!

This year we decided to offer two marketing/PR internships to help us with new ideas for promoting our services. After seeing many great applicants, we chose two motivated and creative students who have backgrounds in everything from online journalism to public relations. Meet Kari Nickell and Ryan Pfefferle!

Kari is a Junior Public Relations major and Journalism minor from South Charleston, Ohio. In the future she hopes to take her passion for public relation and global culture and work internationally for a large corporation or the government. Kari hopes to gain experience from her internship as well as being able to see through the exciting public relations plan the interns created for CSLS.

Ryan is a senior at Ohio University, currently in the process of completing dual programs in Online Journalism and Economics. He grew up in Dublin, Ohio in a family of five and intends to follow in the footsteps of his father, sister, and sister-in-law by attending law school next academic year following his graduation from Ohio University in June.  While he is not completely sure where an education in law will take him in life, he eagerly anticipates the academic and professional challenges that await him the future.  He initially applied for the internship with CSLS to get his foot in the door at a successful non-profit legal assistance program, but he is finding that the implementation of good Public Relations and Marketing strategies are essential for any group’s success. He is excited to be a part of a team as diligent as those at The Center for Student Legal Services.

So far this quarter, Kari and Ryan have been working with Chairperson Tracy Kelly, Intern Director Allison Arnold and Program Coordinator Heidi Sochia to implement the public relations plan they formulated at the end of November. So far this quarter, they have been putting a lot of effort into their first endeavor, the CSLS Website Launch Party, set to take place on January 17th. Next on their plate will be planning a promotional event to celebrate our 15th anniversary in February. We are excited to showcase the talents of our hardworking interns!

Welcome to The New and Improved Website!

After months of planning and hard work we have completed our new website and blog, just in time for our 15th anniversary! Check out some of our new features:

• “Quick Links” on the front page is  fast way to take you to the topics that students most frequently search.
• All printable materials are now available in one place. The ”Downloads” section contains copyright free fliers on a variety of topics for print and distribution, forms you may need during your case, and examples of letters and other forms for housing issues.
• The four most recent blogs are featured on the front page so you always know about the current topic here at CSLS.
• Just click the buttons to join our Facebook page, Twitter feed, and add our blog to your RSS feed. Our Facebook page features the “CSLS Tip of the Week”.
• The Board of Directors are now featured in the “About Us” section. Meet the students that are an essential part of the operation of CSLS!

This is still a work in progress, so if you see anything that is not working, please shoot me an email at heidi@studentlegalrights.org. The “Housing Law” and “Consumer Law” sections are still under contruction and will be available soon. In the meantime, if you have a question that is not answered on the website, please call us to schedule an appointment.

Special thanks to John Sammon of Sixth City Marketing for his help, expertise and tremendous amount of patience. John is an Ohio University alum who owns Sixth City Marketing, a company that specializes in online marketing, search engine optimization and PPC.

Enjoy!

Heidi Sochia, Program Coordinator