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Kent State Expands Its Conflict Management Center to Its Own School

The original center, called the Center for Peaceful Change, started a year after the university's historic May 4 shootings.
KENT STATE UNIVERSITY
The original center, called the Center for Peaceful Change, started a year after the university's historic May 4 shootings.
The original center, called the Center for Peaceful Change, started a year after the university's historic May 4 shootings.
Credit KENT STATE UNIVERSITY
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KENT STATE UNIVERSITY
The original center, called the Center for Peaceful Change, started a year after the university's historic May 4 shootings.

Kent State University is expanding its Center for Applied Conflict Management and refining its mission.

The center, which used to be under the university’s political science department, will now be called the School of Peace and Conflict Studies and will have its own full-time faculty.

The school’s director, Patrick Coy, says the change will give Kent State a bigger profile for its work in conflict management and social change.

“So we’re not known just for conflict. We’re known for the constructive management of conflict, the constructive conflict responses to conflict and to violence and to war, and to bring about more sustainable peace with justice. And this is one of the reasons why we did this.”

The school, originally known as the Center for Peaceful Change, was created in 1971 following the killing of four Kent State students by the National Guard the year before.

Copyright 2021 WKSU. To see more, visit WKSU.

Mitch Felan is a news intern for WKSU. He is a multimedia journalist with experience in print, television, radio and visual journalism. Felan is a junior at Kent State University, working towards a Bachelor's Degree in Multimedia Journalism. During the school year, Felan works for Kent State Student Media in TV2, The Kent Stater, and KentWired. He will be serving as the Digital Director for Kent State University's Student Media Newsroom in the Fall.