Just in time for blocking season, Harvard students now have a new option for resolving personal conflicts. The Conflict Resource Center (CRC), a group of 16 students trained in confidential conflict mediation, will start offering their resolution services on Monday.

"Blocking group week is a difficult time for freshmen. Students need to talk with each other honestly, but sometimes its hard to do that," said Naomi F. Coquillon '02, co-director of CRC. "We're here to help."

Next Thursday, the CRC will hold a presentation for blocking students, discussing issues that commonly arise and tips for approaching difficult conversations surrounding the blocking process.

The first-year blocking deadline is March 14.

The CRC, advised by the Bureau of Study Counsel (BSC), will offer nightly phone and drop-in services.

"Our purpose is to give people with interpersonal problems a place to receive confidentitial peer mediation," Coquillon said. "We're prepared for a wide range of problems, but we focus on basic roommate problems--conflicting hours, messiness, boyfriends--whatever may be causing stress within a room."

The group will also arrange sit-down meetings in neutral settings to mediate conflicts between students.

"Mediation is a confidential, voluntary process where mediators facilitate communication and a resolution. We're facilitators, basically," said Elizabeth C. Tippett '02, CRC's other co-director. "We facilitate communication."