Students compete in mock mediation tournament

Destiny Gaudlock
two students talk over their notes
Bayley Blackmon and Cassandra Childress chat in Thurmond-McRae Lecture Hall during the 17th annual Mock Mediation Tournament at Brenau University.

Brenau University hosted its 17th annual Mock Mediation Invitational Tournament Oct. 4-5, which brought more than 60 students to the Gainesville campus from eight universities across the country to practice their conflict resolution abilities.

“The tournament was a success thanks to support from the local mediators, attorneys and faculty who assisted in judging the student participants,” said Ken Frank, director of the Conflict Resolution and Legal Studies Program. “The results of this tournament will help select who will represent Brenau in the International Intercollegiate Mediation Tournament on Nov. 1-3 at Osgoode Hall Law School at York University in Toronto, Canada.”

The participating universities included Brenau, Butler University, Bowling Green State University, Middle Georgia State University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, Principia College and University of Central Florida.

Frank said Brenau’s tournament is the largest undergraduate invitational in the country. He started the tournament as a way for students to gain more experience.

“We went to a national tournament cold,” Frank said. “We didn’t have a chance to practice with other schools. We just practiced here with ourselves.”

This year’s training for students was led by Susan Raines from Kennesaw State University and editor of Conflict Resolution Quarterly, the most well-known journal in the field.

“That’s what sets our tournaments aside from American Bar Association competitions or other competitions,” Frank said. “We always have a training segment as part of our tournaments.”

Brenau’s competition is broken up into three rounds and each round includes six students. Two are co-mediators, while the other four become two advocate-client pairs. All six students sit together and work through various cases in front of judges. The judges are from the community and included lawyers, mediators, mental health professionals and some faculty. Students are typically paired with others from separate schools, which helps them work with new people.

Jessica Jarrett, Madeline Langford, Dejah Williams, Letisha Wallace and Destine Gaudlock won individual awards as advocate-client pairs for Brenau.

The full results of the Mock Mediation Tournament are as follows:

Baumgardner Award Winner
Maryam Abdul Ali Alkhakim, University of Texas at Dallas

Top 10 Mediation Teams
Butler University
Principia College #1
UNC Charlotte
University of Central Florida
University of Texas at Dallas
Principia College #2
Brenau University
University of Central Florida
Bowling Green State University
University of Texas at Dallas

Top 10 Advocate/Client Teams
Butler University
Principia College #1
Principia College #2
Bowling Green State University
UNC Charlotte
Brenau University
University of Texas at Dallas
Brenau University
University of Texas at Dallas
Middle Georgia State University