EECS REFS Roles and Responsibilities
EECS REFS (Resources for Easing Friction and Stress) are trained to mediate conflicts (between students) and serve as resources to graduate students in the EECS department. EECS REFS are not expected to find solutions to every situation they encounter; instead, they should direct graduate students in need to the professional resources and services MIT offers when necessary.
Every member of the EECS REFS program will act as a Mediator/Counselor, Liaison, and Advocate for the students in the EECS graduate population. As mediators and counselors, EECS REFS will offer insight on questions facing graduate students in the department. As liaisons, EECS REFS will provide information about the professional resources MIT has to offer graduate students. Finally, as advocates, EECS REFS will inform the EECS REFS Program Faculty Advisors of issues and concerns facing the EECS graduate student population.
While seeking to fulfill these roles, each member of the EECS REFS program will have additional responsibilities. Although their role as graduate researchers supersedes their role as mediators, EECS REFS must be able to meet with graduate students from the EECS Department as the need arises. Note that if a participant of the EECS REFS program is unable to devote sufficient time to this position, they may be asked to step down from the REFS position for the semester. Trained EECS REFS can resume their position in subsequent semesters with the expressed permission of the EECS REFS Program Faculty Advisors. On the other hand, if a student requiring assistance is causing a member of the EECS REFS program to become overburdened (e.g., a specific student constantly comes to seek advise from the same mediator on a very regular basis), they must understand that though they act as a counselor, their primary responsibility is an EECS Graduate Student and thus to their research work. Therefore, EECS REFS in this position should contact the EECS REFS Program Faculty Advisors for advice when needed on how to deal with students of this kind.
In addition to their responsibility to the department as trained mediators, EECS REFS will be responsible for preparing and running social events in each of the EECS labs which focus on providing EECS graduate students opportunities to meet the EECS REFS.
These events will also provide the EECS REFS with opportunity to provide and discuss MIT's professional support services and resources available to the graduate population. These events should occur at minimum once a semester in each of the EECS
laboratories and could coincide with other graduate student events.
Every member of the EECS REFS program will be required to attend the thirty hour mediation and conflict resolution training as prepared by Mediation@MIT. EECS graduate students interested in participating in the EECS REFS program will be ineligible until the successful completion of the training program. EECS REFS will be required to meet with one another once a month. In this meeting, the EECS REFS will discuss and evaluate the status and direction of the program while maintaining confidentiality (as discussed during training). These meetings will help to ensure that each member of the EECS REFS program is responsible in sharing the workload of the program, while promoting the exchange information about various concerns and/or issues affecting the EECS graduate population. At the end of this meeting, a brief report should be sent to the EECS REFS Program Faculty Advisors detailing the important issues discussed at this meeting. EECS REFS and the EECS REFS Program Faculty Advisors should meet at least once a semester to formally discuss issues facing the EECS REFS and EECS graduate students.
This exerpt was adapted from the "(Graduate Resident) Tutor Roles and Responsibilities" written by W. B. Watson on September 9, 2002. This original document can be found at: http://web.mit.edu/slp/about/grt-roles.shtml
