ITHACA, N.Y. -- A Cornell University group with a national roster of mediators skilled in dispute resolution will help the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) resolve any workplace disputes that might arise within its own agency. The EEOC is the federal agency governing equal opportunity in employment throughout the United States.

As part of the new working relationship, the Alliance for Education in Dispute Resolution at Cornell will open to the EEOC its nationwide roster of expert mediators, all of whom received alliance training and are experienced in workplace discrimination and related employment issues.

Mediation involves the use of a neutral third party who acts as a facilitator in the resolution of a dispute. The EEOC plans to use alliance mediators in the agency's Resolve program, a new, voluntary alternative dispute resolution program for addressing internal workplace disputes. In doing so, the EEOC hopes to be a model agency, practicing what it preaches, says its chair, Cari M. Dominguez. "The EEOC must exemplify the best employment practices from the inside out," she said.

The alliance, which is based at Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, is a consortium of the nation's professional organizations in dispute resolution as well as dispute resolution programs at universities and law schools. All members have received special training from the alliance.

Rocco Scanza, executive director of the Cornell-based alliance, said: "We are pleased that the EEOC has chosen to align with us. Their decision demonstrates the growing importance of resolving workplace disputes through mediation and recognizes the exceptional skills of the trained neutrals on our roster. We are justly proud to have been invited to play such a role."

The Resolve program is part of Dominguez's Five-Point Plan to improve the EEOC's overall operational efficiency and effectiveness. Points four and five of the plan stress the expansion and promotion of mediation and other forms of alternative dispute resolution. "Resolve is a new and exciting one-stop, informal mediation process that will move us closer to becoming a model federal workplace," said Dominguez. "The EEOC is firmly committed to using alternative methods to resolve employment disputes in all of its activities, as appropriate."

Mediation was selected as the primary method of dispute resolution for the EEOC's Resolve program because of its flexibility, voluntary nature and the demonstrated success of mediation in the resolution of workplace disputes. The benefits, said Dominguez, include disputes resolved more quickly than in the traditional complaint processes; litigation and other costs lowered; creative solutions developed by the parties themselves, leading to greater satisfaction with the process and the results; and future complaints avoided as parties learn to communicate better with each other.

This is the second such affiliation with a federal agency for the Cornell-based alliance. The first is with the U.S. Department of Labor, announced in 2000. Arnold Zack, chair of the alliance's executive committee, commented: "The EEOC, like the DOL, has recognized the importance of relying on independent mediators to sustain the credibility of its ADR [alternative dispute resolution] efforts. We hope that other government agencies, state and federal, will follow their example to protect the integrity and effectiveness of their internal statutory enforcement programs."

In addition to Cornell, the Alliance for Education in Dispute Resolution members include dispute resolution programs at: Arizona State University, Georgia State University, Marquette University Law School, Ohio State University School of Law, Pepperdine University School of Law, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of California-Los Angeles, University of Illinois, University of Missouri Law School, University of Pittsburgh and Willamette University; and these professional organizations: American Bar Association Section of Labor and Employment Law, Association of Conflict Resolution, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services, Industrial Relations Research Association, National Academy of Arbitrators, National Bar Association and Society of Federal Labor Relations Professionals.

Cornell ILR faculty involved in the alliance include David Lipsky and Ronald Seeber. Lipsky, a former dean of the ILR School, now leads the school's Institute for Conflict Resolution, where the alliance is housed. Seeber, who is associate dean of the ILR School, is affiliated with the institute as well. For information, contact Scanza at (607) 255-1124 or rms43@cornell.edu or visit this Web site: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/depts/ICR/alliance.html .