Harvard gives students more latitude to describe their gender

Harvard gives students more latitude to describe their gender

Harvard University’s largest academic division is allowing students register for the new academic year as male, female or transgender and choose which gendered or genderless pronouns they prefer, school officials said Thursday.

The Ivy League school’s arts and science college, which enrolls about half of Harvard’s 21,000 students, will give them the chance to indicate whether they prefer to use the traditional pronouns “he” and “she” or alternatives including “ze,” “hir” or variants of “they.”

“If faculty or advisors are inadvertently outing someone by using a name or pronoun that doesn’t reflect their authentic self, that is a problem,” said Michael Burke, registrar for the university’s school of arts and sciences. He noted that the program may be rolled out across Harvard’s other schools next year.

Professors will be able to access this information through a new student information system, eliminating what Burke said can sometimes be an awkward conversation about gender identity between professors and their new students.

“If on the first day of class your professor is referring to you as a man, and you identify as a woman, even if you’re not trans, you could understand how that might affect you,” Burke said. “It’s jarring.”