{"id":2480,"date":"2015-09-20T08:00:14","date_gmt":"2015-09-20T15:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spijue.wpengine.com\/news\/he-she-ze-colleges-add-gender-free-pronouns-alter-policy\/"},"modified":"2015-09-20T08:00:14","modified_gmt":"2015-09-20T15:00:14","slug":"he-she-ze-colleges-add-gender-free-pronouns-alter-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/life\/he-she-ze-colleges-add-gender-free-pronouns-alter-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"He? She? Ze? Colleges add gender-free pronouns, alter policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014<\/strong> Welcome to Harvard. Feel free to pick a pronoun on this form: __ He. __ She. __ Ze. __ E. __ They.<\/p>\n

During the registration process at Harvard University, students are now allowed to indicate which pronouns they use, with suggested gender-neutral options like \u201cze\u201d or \u201cthey.\u201d Harvard isn\u2019t the first college to embrace gender-neutral pronouns, but it\u2019s among a wave of major institutions that are widening their policies and pronouns to acknowledge transgender students, as well as \u201cgenderqueer\u201d students, who don\u2019t identify as male or female.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf someone is being alienated or potentially outed by inappropriate gender references, we think that\u2019s not appropriate,\u201d said Michael Burke, registrar of Harvard\u2019s Faculty of Arts and Sciences.<\/p>\n

American University posted a guide on its website explaining how to use pronouns like \u201cey,\u201d and how to ask someone which pronouns they use. Cornell University and MIT offer similar primers on their websites. Ohio University started letting students register their gender pronouns this year, and officials at Boston University said they\u2019re discussing the topic. Last week, the State University of New York, one of the nation\u2019s largest public college systems, announced that it\u2019s working on a data-collection tool to let students choose among seven gender identities, including \u201ctrans man,\u201d \u2018\u2019questioning\u201d and \u201cgenderqueer.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advocates for transgender students applaud the changes, saying it can be insulting to be identified by the wrong pronoun.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt feels really invalidating to have people make an assumption about what your gender is simply by looking at you,\u201d said Genny Beemyn, director of the Stonewall Center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender students at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst.<\/p>\n

Changes at places like Harvard, Beemyn said, represent \u201cacceleration of a trend that we have been seeing for the past few years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond pronouns, more colleges are updating forms that in the past let students pick between male and female only. Applications to the University of California system include more options starting this year, letting students choose from labels including trans female or genderqueer. The move is meant to welcome those students, but for the first time it also lets the school track data on how transgender students fare on campus, such as their graduation rates.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is something that people think is long overdue,\u201d said Pamela Brown, the system\u2019s vice president of institutional research and academic planning.<\/p>\n

Academics have suggested for years the idea that gender falls along a spectrum, not into two options. As early as 2009, schools like the University of Vermont were letting students pick their gender pronouns.<\/p>\n

But the work of campus advocacy groups, plus the emergence of transgender figures in pop culture, has fueled wider change, experts say.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s now commonplace for colleges to offer housing for transgender students. On the first day of class, some professors voluntarily ask students to provide their pronouns.<\/p>\n

But on some campuses, change has provoked backlash.<\/p>\n

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, sparked outrage among state politicians in August when a post on the school website encouraged students to use pronouns such as \u201cxe.\u201d State senators blasted the idea and called for an investigation of the post. Days later, by the order of the school president, it was taken down. A spokeswoman for the university declined to comment.<\/p>\n

Grammarians, too, have chafed at the idea of pronouns that stretch modern English. Some individuals who don\u2019t identify as male or female use the pronoun \u201cthey,\u201d which some academics say should be reserved for plural subjects.<\/p>\n

At Harvard, 4,000 students have submitted pronouns so far, with slightly more than 1 percent choosing something other than \u201che\u201d or \u201cshe,\u201d said Burke, the registrar.<\/p>\n

Laila Smith filled in \u201cthey\u201d and \u201ctheir\u201d on the form, pronouns the junior started using earlier this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cBy now, we\u2019ve figured out that sexuality is fluid, gender is fluid,\u201d said Smith, who identifies as genderqueer. \u201cI think that we\u2019re at the beginning of it all, and I hope to see this more integrated into the student life that I experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

For now, there\u2019s nothing requiring students or professors to use the pronouns students pick. But Burke said the university is planning to train faculty members how to look up a student\u2019s pronouns, and explain their significance.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want this to be a place that is inclusive,\u201d Burke said, \u201cand embracing of everybody in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOSTON \u2014 Welcome to Harvard. Feel free to pick a pronoun on this form: __ He. __ She. __ Ze. __ E. __ They. During the registration process at Harvard University, students are now allowed to indicate which pronouns they use, with suggested gender-neutral options like \u201cze\u201d or \u201cthey.\u201d Harvard isn\u2019t the first college to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":107,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":7,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-2480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/107"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2480"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2480\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2480"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=2480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}