Six of our MIRHR students and CIRHR instructor, Bob Thompson, departed to Ithaca, New York on March 20th to defend their first-place title at the 2025 Inter-University Negotiation Competition – a multi-party industrial relations problem based on the construction industry – alongside teams from Queen’s University, Rutger’s University and the event host, Cornell University.
IRE1535 Collective Bargaining students, Aneeza Farooqui, Sadhana Koganti, Shahbano Rao, Alissia Sannuto, Fotini Sioukas, and Manda Vrkljan, as well as two alternates, Yutong Sun and Bowen Gao, were keen and ready to face off with a combination of other students in one of five negotiation rooms.
Their readiness was rewarded – U of T placed first, with high marks for their focus and high-performance; Queen’s placed second, and Cornell third. Two members of the U of T team, Sadhana and Shahbano, were recognized for being top performers in their roles.
"Importantly, every team member contributed to bringing the cup back to the CIRHR," says Bob Thompson, who summarizes the team's participation in the Negotiation Competition with much gratitude:
Thank you to Rafael and the Centre for supporting this endeavour, and to Joanna for coordinating everything. Thank you to our friends in the library for proudly displaying the trophy for these many years. As always, the entire staff at the Centre were so supportive. We appreciated the warm hospitality of the faculty and staff at Cornell and, similarly, Queen’s should be included in our thanks for administering the competition rules as they do every year. Finally, much credit should go to our students. We are proud of them. They act as such great ambassadors, and they are the consummate specialists in their field.