Lola, an undergraduate intern working with the information technology unit of Student Health Services, is granted time at a team-wide staff meeting to share her proposal for changes to the group’s operating procedures. Lola contends that a long-running auto-population function for their client ticketing system, which automatically imports names and gender pronouns from Banner into the client response emails and team communication, is problematic and potentially marginalizing to users.
Lola shares that while there have been no formal complaints about the system, in her experience with similar organizations, such assumptive practices impacted their clients’ experience. Particularly, there was an adverse impact on clients whose gender identity and expression had transitioned since the time their data was initially collected.
The team is intrigued by the proposal and agrees that changes to the system are not quick or easy. Following dialogue at the staff meeting, the team agrees to assemble programmers and other organizational stakeholders to explore options, solutions and necessary resources. The group decides to redact pronouns from their communications entirely and aligns their auto-population function with the “preferred name” field in Banner.
- The Issue: Lola identifies as a programming limitation in currently operating software which may potentially misidentify students’ gender.
- The Deliberation: Lola raises the issue as a precaution, not in response to an active conflict. The team listens and agrees to assemble a team to provide resources and support Lola in resolving the issue.
- The Growth: As a result of inviting input and dialogue from all team members, the unit is able to mediate and resolve an issue before it negatively impacted the organization’s stakeholders