1. Blumer’s Theory of Symbolic Interactionism
A Text-based Scenario
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2. Background
You are the new assistant director of student organizations on a campus for a regional university of approximately 15,000 students.
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3. At the Campus Dining Hall
You are at lunch at the campus dining hall and overhear a conversation behind you. One female student you do not know was telling another female student that the faculty advisor for her student organization groped her in his office. You hear the faculty advisors name and date of when the incident happened.
A=you identify yourself and approach the female student for more details
B=ignore what you overheard
Identify yourself and approach the female student for more details
Ignore what you overheard

4. Choice A: Office of the Director of Student Organizations
The female student shares the additional details of the incident with you which you then report to the director of student organizations. Four weeks later you finally have a meeting with the director in their personal office about what you reported. The director takes a few notes on a notebook during the meeting. The director assures you that the situation will be handled and you do not need to discuss this matter with anyone else, including the student.
C=Contact the dean of student affairs to share what you learned from the student and your meeting with the director of student organizations because you feel this situation is being swept under the rug as four weeks have already passed and nothing has been done.
D=Let it go. Your boss just said he’d handle it.
Contact the dean of student affairs to share what you learned from the student and your meeting with the director of student organizations because you feel this situation is being swept under the rug as four weeks have already passed and nothing has been done.
Let it go. Your boss just said he’d handle it.

5. Choice B: Office of the Director of Student Organizations
Four weeks later you are in a weekly recap meeting with the director of student organizations and one of your topics of discussion is mandatory harassment training and reporting on campus. The director rolls his eyes about this mandated training and comments that kids on campus today need to stop blowing everything out of proportion. The accusations you heard over lunch a few weeks ago weigh on your mind again.
E= Speak up and tell your boss that these comments are not appropriate and that you overheard a conversation just a few weeks ago where a student described being groped by a faculty member.
F=Let it go. Your boss knows this campus better than you and the comment was just a joke.
Speak up and tell your boss that these comments are not appropriate and that you overheard a conversation just a few weeks ago where a student described being groped by a faculty member.
Let it go. Your boss knows this campus better than you and the comment was just a joke.

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Dean’s office
You are essentially a whistleblower now. You have reported your boss to the dean for not complying with the mandatory campus reporting system for harassment claims. Your work environment is now uncomfortable, the campus newspaper caught wind and wrote an article, and you are now required to seek legal counsel with the campus attorney about both the student’s claims and your accusations of non-reporting by your boss. You don’t know what will happen to your job or your future.
Whistleblower
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7. Dean’s office
You have been called into the office of the Dean of Student Affairs. The dean informs you that your boss has been accused of disregarding and covering up student complaints. The dean asks you if you have any knowledge about this. Do you:
G= Tell the dean what happened and that your boss would handle the student complaint you reported.
H= Play dumb and say nothing. You are new to this campus and you want to keep your job.
Play dumb and say nothing. You are new to this campus and you want to keep your job.
Tell the dean what happened and that your boss would handle the student complaint you reported.

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Campus Setting
After your comments to your boss your fellow co-workers starting making similar comments and claims. You were the spark that ignited the flames of change on your campus. You and your coworkers were able to expose your boss and the disregard for student allegations of harassment. Your boss was fired and you are helping to interview replacements.
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9. Unpleasant Conditions
Over the next several months your boss continues to cover up reports of harassment by students against faculty members. Your work environment becomes a place you dread. The toll of so much victimization of young college students all over campus is too much for you. You begin to seek counseling options to help you manage.
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Campus Setting G
Your honesty with the dean confirmed what was already suspected. Your boss ended up being fired after an investigation revealed multiple other reports of student harassment being ignored or covered up. There is a new director of student organizations that is implementing additional trainings, seminars, and reporting procedures for harassment on campus.
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H: Unemployment
Over the next several months your boss continues to cover up reports of harassment by students against faculty members. You now know about so many cover up scandals that you quit your job in fear that you will soon be implicated alongside your boss.
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