JMU hosts U.N. de-mining conference

Since 1996, The Mine Action Information Center has been here at JMU. The group’s mission has been to collect, process, analyze and disseminate information relevant to land mine-related issues. Now, the United Nations Development Program has contacted the MAIC to conduct a training session to senior-level officials from 17 land mine-plagued countries.

The five-week training course ran from Sept. 20 to Oct. 22. The courses were taught by 25 JMU professors from a variety of departments, including the College of Business, College of Integrated Science and Technology, College of Arts and Letters and the College of Education. JMU students that either work or volunteer for MAIC also have worked during the conference.

The 17 participating nations were all from war-stricken countries plagued with the issue of land mines and Unexploded Ordinances, or UXOs. The participants were all senior-level officials from their respective countries, though not all of them were here to learn about the same facet of land mine action.

Some participants came to learn about risk management, change management, the economics of disasters, topics on land mine remediation, ethics and organizational structure and design, according to the MAIC.

"It has been very back and forth," said Suzanne Fiederline, a research associate for the MAIC. "We received some criticism, but — overall — the professors were very pleased with the interaction and the participants were also very receptive to new ideas and having the opportunity to have this exchange."

Over the course of this five-week period, the participants were not only involved in their training courses given on campus, but they also had the opportunity to explore the campus and Harrisonburg.

"Their interaction within the community and in the courses was overall very positive," said Marion

White, a management professor who taught some of the modules on planning.

Senior Katherine Rose, who works with MAIC as a program assistant, said, "This is a wonderful opportunity for MAIC. Hopefully, we can have more conferences in the future and give more people training to make the mine action community more aware and efficient."