diff --git a/src/org/vivoweb/webapp/util/ModelUtils.java b/src/org/vivoweb/webapp/util/ModelUtils.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..3215d07c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/org/vivoweb/webapp/util/ModelUtils.java
@@ -0,0 +1,71 @@
+/* $This file is distributed under the terms of the license in /doc/license.txt$ */
+
+package org.vivoweb.webapp.util;
+
+import java.util.HashSet;
+import java.util.Iterator;
+import java.util.List;
+import java.util.Set;
+
+import org.apache.commons.logging.Log;
+import org.apache.commons.logging.LogFactory;
+
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.VClassDao;
+import edu.cornell.mannlib.vitro.webapp.dao.WebappDaoFactory;
+
+
+public class ModelUtils {
+	
+	private static final Log log = LogFactory.getLog(ModelUtils.class.getName());
+		
+	private static final String processPropertyURI = "http://vivoweb.org/ontology/core#roleRealizedIn";
+	private static final String processPropertyInverseURI = "http://vivoweb.org/ontology/core#realizedRole";
+	private static final String nonProcessPropertyURI = "http://vivoweb.org/ontology/core#roleContributesTo";
+	private static final String nonProcessPropertyInverseURI = "http://vivoweb.org/ontology/core#ContributingRole";
+	
+	private static Set<String> processClass = new HashSet<String>();
+	static {
+		processClass.add("http://vivoweb.org/ontology/core#Process");
+		processClass.add("http://purl.org/NET/c4dm/event.owl#Event");
+		processClass.add("http://xmlns.com/foaf/0.1/Agent");
+	}
+
+	/*
+	 * Given a class URI that represents the type of entity that a Role
+	 * is in (in, in any of its senses) this method returns the URIs of
+	 * the properties that should use used to relate the Role to the entity.
+	 *
+	 * Note: we may want to change the implementation of this method
+	 * to check whether the target class has both a parent that is a
+	 * BFO Process and a parent that is not a BFO Process and issue
+	 * a warning if so.
+	 */
+	public static PropertyURIPair getPropertyForRoleInClass(String classURI, WebappDaoFactory wadf) {
+		
+		PropertyURIPair propertyURIPair= null;
+		
+		if (classURI == null) {
+			log.error("input classURI is null");
+			return propertyURIPair;
+		}
+		
+		if (wadf == null) {
+			log.error("input WebappDaoFactory is null");
+			return propertyURIPair;
+		}
+		
+		VClassDao vcd = wadf.getVClassDao();
+		List<String> superClassURIs = vcd.getSuperClassURIs(classURI, false);
+		Iterator<String> iter = superClassURIs.iterator();
+		
+	    while (iter.hasNext()) {
+	    	String superClassURI = iter.next();
+	    	
+	    	if (processClass.contains(superClassURI)) {
+	    		return new PropertyURIPair(processPropertyURI, processPropertyInverseURI);
+	    	}
+	    }
+		
+		return new PropertyURIPair(nonProcessPropertyURI, nonProcessPropertyInverseURI);
+	}	
+}
diff --git a/src/org/vivoweb/webapp/util/PropertyURIPair.java b/src/org/vivoweb/webapp/util/PropertyURIPair.java
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..d27782bf
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/org/vivoweb/webapp/util/PropertyURIPair.java
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
+
+/* $This file is distributed under the terms of the license in /doc/license.txt$ */
+
+package org.vivoweb.webapp.util;
+
+public class PropertyURIPair {
+	private String propURI = null;
+	private String inversePropURI = null;
+	
+	public PropertyURIPair(){};
+	
+    public PropertyURIPair(String propURI, String inversePropURI) {
+    	this.propURI = propURI;
+    	this.inversePropURI = inversePropURI;
+    }
+	
+	public String getPropURI() {
+		return propURI;
+	}
+	
+	public void setPropURI(String propURI) {
+        this.propURI = propURI;
+	}
+	
+	public String getInversePropURI() {
+		return inversePropURI;
+	}
+	
+	public void setInversePropURI(String inversePropURI) {
+        this.inversePropURI = inversePropURI;
+	}		
+}