10/7/2009 - Western Carolina University will mark Conflict Resolution Day with a showing of the Clint Eastwood film “Gran Torino” and panel discussion, from 6:30 to 9:15 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 15, in the movie theater of the A.K. Hinds University Center.

Program sponsors are the WCU Campus Mediation Program and the nonprofit organization Mountain Mediation Services. The event is free and open to the public.

“Gran Torino” stars Clint Eastwood as a Korean War veteran attempting to effect change in his longtime neighborhood, whose population has grown to include minorities as well as gangs. A panel discussion during the movie will explore the root of the film’s conflict and whether its characters might have addressed it more constructively.

Members of the diverse panel will include Ben Reed, chief of the Cherokee tribal police on the Qualla Boundary; Bill Mauldin, a mediator and former minister; Marie Cochran, a WCU professor and mediator; and Aaron Thompson, a member of the Brevard Police Department and a former social worker and mediator. Lorraine Johnson, executive director of Mountain Mediation Services, will introduce the event.

WCU’s College of Business and the department of student community ethics jointly operate the student-focused Campus Mediation Program. The College of Business offers a minor in conflict resolution and cross-cultural communication. Mountain Mediation Services offers its services to residents of the Qualla Boundary and the counties of Cherokee, Clay, Haywood, Jackson, Macon and Swain.

Conflict Resolution Day has been observed the third Thursday of October since the Association of Conflict Resolution launched the event in 2005.

For more information about WCU’s Conflict Resolution Day event, call Jayne Zanglein, assistant professor in the College of Business, at (828) 227-7191 or Lorraine Johnson of Mountain Mediation Services at (828) 488-8812.

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Last modified Wednesday, Oct. 7, 2009.