Affirmative Action Scenarios
Here are several case studies or scenarios that can help stimulate thought during office staff meetings. Each office should review a minimum of three scenarios. Offices may draw from these examples and/or create their own to address issues of local concern. Please have locally created scenarios reviewed by Martina Mohrbacher, Outreach Initiative Specialist, before using them.
County Directors and Center Coordinators may want to invite someone outside their office to facilitate some of the discussions.
How to use in a staff meeting setting:
- Copies are made of the scenarios as they appear at the top of the page and distributed to participants without the "suggestions." The “SUGGESTIONS” section is only for the Discussion Leader to share as appropriate after staff has had a chance to generate their own responses to the scenario. There often is not one "best" response to any given situation.
- Pair off individuals – distribute a copy of the chosen scenario to each participant. Ask participants to spend a minute thinking about the scenario. Put themselves in the position of each of the individuals in the scenario and explore their thoughts, feelings and reactions to the situation. Then, as individuals, write down possible responses before the pair or dyad discusses possible responses.
- After the pairs have had a chance to compare and discuss responses, ask for a report from each pair. General group discussions should follow.
- Repeat with additional scenarios.
- Be sure to document these training efforts in your staff meeting minutes. A copy of the appropriate set of minutes needs to be sent to the Regional Director and placed in the office's Civil Rights files. Also, send a copy of the minutes to: mohrbchr@uiuc.edu.
- In your report document the letter or name of scenarios used as part of this training.
- If you have suggestions for additional topics or scenarios, please send an e-mail to current Affirmative Action Committee chair: cutz@uiuc.edu.
SUMMARY COMMENTS
- Some of the “take away messages” you might want to share:
- All of these scenarios, as well as those that we will encounter in the future, will become easier to handle when we get used to tapping into resources within the community.
- Situations like these are easier to solve if we don’t see them as a burden or problem. Keep in mind that we are required to make “all reasonable effort” and may not necessarily find a perfect solution to every situation.
- Keep the focus on problem solving rather than the attitude “ain’t it awful…”
