Supporting Transgender and Nonbinary Students in the Classroom

Transgender and nonbinary students contribute to the rich diversity of the RIT student body.  At the same time, across many measures of health and wellbeing trans students’ experience is substantially worse, compared with cisgender students. Instructors play a crucial role in creating a welcoming environment for students to learn.  Consider incorporating the promising practices below, especially modeling and honoring each student’s name and pronouns, to foster a supportive environment for our transgender and nonbinary students.

• Normalize pronoun-sharing by sharing your own:
  • When introducing yourself: “Hi, I’m Alex Smith, and I use she/her pronouns.”
  • In your email signature: Alex Smith (she/her)
  • On your Zoom profile
  • On your Slack profile
  • In myCourses
• Always encourage, but do not force, students to share their name and pronouns.
  • Show support and interest in your syllabus.  For example: I strive to use your name and pronouns correctly.  Please share them as you are able, and update me if they change.
  • SIS and myCourses do not necessarily contain the name a student uses. Allow students to communicate the name and/or pronouns they use through open-ended sign-in sheets or name tags during class.
  • Avoid making assumptions about pronouns based on a student’s appearance or name. You can use a gender-neutral pronoun (“they”) when you do not know someone’s pronouns.
  • Enable renaming in Zoom so that students can control their name that is displayed in the meeting. Students can also choose to share their pronouns with you in Zoom meetings.

• Currently, pronouns are not systematically captured in RIT systems.  However, students (and faculty/staff) can modify their first and middle names through start.rit.edu.
• Be mindful that for many reasons, not all trans/nonbinary students are able, ready, or need to change their name in SIS.
• You can find a student in SIS using a student’s last name or UID. Do not ask for a student’s deadname (the name they no longer use) to search for them.

We all make mistakes. When you realize that you may have referred to someone with an incorrect pronoun or name, acknowledge it and correct it, then move on. Use the correct pronoun the next time.