Have the University of Michigan Put Student Pronouns on Class Rosters

Trans students at the University of Michigan often find themselves facing threats to their mental and physical safety. Currently, students must reach out to their professors and GSIs on their own or risk being misgendered in the classroom. This can be a mentally and emotionally draining experience for individuals who constantly have to inform or correct their professors of their identity.

Students should be given the opportunity to inform the University of their preferred pronouns when they fill out their college applications for the University of Michigan. Other prestigious universities such as Harvard have already instituted this policy. A student’s choice of preferred pronouns should then be made available and editable on Wolverine Access. More importantly, each student’s preferred pronouns should be included on class rosters every semester.

This updated system will allow non-passing or gender nonconforming transgender people to have their pronouns respected by teachers, and will prevent the erasure of nonbinary individuals who use neopronouns or they/them pronouns.  Knowing the pronouns of one’s students is especially important in small lectures, discussion sessions, and language classes that focus on classroom conversation.