Tips on Personal Pronoun Usage From The Office of DEI
In the interest of inclusive excellence and creating a welcoming environment for all students, faculty, and staff the Office of DEI would like to share helpful resources reminding members of the community on techniques to share their personal pronouns and changed names with members of the college community.
The first step is always to become more educated about the importance of personal pronouns and gender identity. The Office of DEI recommends faculty, staff and students review information from various resources including websites like Pronouns Matter and a glossary of terms published by the Human Rights Campaign. In addition, please consult with leaders at the campus level working with student clubs that focus on LBTQIA+ topics.
Secondly, the Office of DEI would like to encourage all faculty and staff to review information about LBTQIA rights as ascribed by the College’s Title IX office. Please see the website for our Title IX Office for more information.
Finally, in order to increase gender identity and pronoun visibility to create a more welcoming environment to all students, the Office of DEI would like to share the following resources and tools that are available:
For Students
Students can add their changed name in SIS Self-Service. Please see the attached slides for a tutorial on Adding Preferred Names or follow this link to read about Changing User Preferences in SIS.
Please note, VCCS will ensure that the changed name appears on grade rosters as a means to encourage faculty to use a student’s changed name when possible. In addition, SIS will integrate with CANVAS and Navigate so a student’s changed name is displayed to the students themselves as well as others they may interact with in virtual environments (classmates, faculty, advisors).
Additionally, per correspondence with VCCS Director of Student Support Services, Dr. Heather Sorrell, VCCS is also actively working to change the online application so under the variable gender in addition to “male,” “female,” “unknown” or “other” additional options such as “nonbinary” and “none of the above” will soon appear.
Finally, students who have updated Zoom to version 5.7.0 can add their personal pronouns to their Zoom profile so they always appear to users, and a guide to Adding and Sharing Your Pronouns is available via Zoom support.
For Faculty and Staff
NOVA faculty and staff who would like to add pronouns to their e-mail signature can learn how through this link, which includes instructions on changing your e-mail signature, as well as a short, how-to video. When changing your signature, please remember to follow and incorporate NOVA’s guidelines.
In addition, faculty and staff are encouraged to add their personal pronouns to their Zoom profiles. A guide to Adding and Sharing Your Pronouns is available via Zoom support.
As NOVA’s Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer noted during PUP 2022, “Using Personal Pronouns and changed names is important because it helps to affirm who students, faculty and staff are and how they choose to share their identities when they wish. When people feel seen and affirmed, they feel like they belong and that is so important to our commitment to inclusive excellence.”
Additional efforts to help create a more welcoming environment across our campuses and buildings are ongoing. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact the Office of DEI, NOVA’s CDEIO or representatives from the DEI Council and/or your DEI Campus Committee. Finally, if you or a student experience discrimination of any kind regarding gender identity please report these incidents to NOVA’s Title IX Officer.
Submitted by:
Ed Aymar, DEI Communications Coord., EAymar@nvcc.edu