COLUMBIA, S.C. — Just in time for LGBTQ Pride Month, the University of South Carolina will allow students and employees to change their preferred personal pronouns in their official, personal data.
The policy change, effective Tuesday, June 1, applies to all campuses and also allows students to change their preferred first or last names once every 365 days, according to a release from USC.
"The Preferred Personal Data option will benefit our entire campus community because many students, faculty and staff get married, divorced, or simply go by a different name other than their legal name," USC spokesman Jeff Stensland said in an email. "Until now those individuals haven't had the ability to self-select a preferred first/last name. The initiative also helps us better serve members of our LGBTQ+ community."
USC is one of 13 Southeastern Conference schools, plus cross-state rival Clemson University, that allow students, faculty and staff to change their preferred name, Stensland said.
Students will be able to choose the pronouns he/him/his, she/her/hers, they/them/theirs and ze/zir/zirs, and others, according to the release. This can be done by logging into a student or employee's myaccount.sc.edu page.
Sasha Sawyer, a transgender USC senior studying chemistry who uses they/them pronouns, said this is a step forward for USC.
"Our ability to express our preferred pronouns in any any context is a good thing," Sawyer said.
Perhaps the most important part of the system will be how the information is used, Sawyer said.
"Will it be used to make all of these teachers understand, 'Hey this is how I want to be referred to,' or will it just be stuck away in some database?" Sawyer said.
As of now, revised names and pronouns will appear in Office 365, the email alias system and "portions of the university student and employee directory." Eventually, the information will appear in Banner, PeopleSoft and Blackboard, according to the release.
Students will not be required to list their pronouns and are allowed to leave that field blank.
