Student pronouns may soon be added to roster sheets in Hunter College classrooms. After reports of professors misgendering students, the student government is attempting to add pronouns to class rosters.
With more professors asking for pronouns at the beginning of class, the addition of pronouns to student roster sheets could help avoid awkward interactions. Other colleges have added pronouns to student rosters with success.
“I heard of instances where students were misgendered or even advocated for their own pronouns and were met with resistance or some type of challenge in the classroom, and that was something that we deemed as unacceptable on our end,” Senate Chair Alexis Fischer said at a student government town hall last week.
The student government is preparing a report with information from a survey that representatives have passed around on social media and student emails. The survey includes a question for respondents that asks why they think gender pronouns should be added to the college roster, and asks respondents if they have a personal testimony to share. The survey and testimony can be anonymous.
The report’s findings will be submitted to college administrators when they have a sufficient amount of responses to the survey. “With the responses that people have allowed us to share, we’re going to detail that in the report,” Fischer said. She also said that the college’s registrar and IT offices would be involved in implementing the change.
“We’ve already had communication with one of those offices just to see if this would be possible and how it would have to work in Blackboard and what the technicalities are,” she said. Ideally, students would have the option in Blackboard to input their pronouns, which would then be synced with the rosters.
The survey is still being shared with hopes to accrue enough responses to submit to the administration that the student government reports to when implementing changes like these.
Hunter College has not responded to The Athenian’s request for comment.
“If you know anybody queer or not, please tell them to fill the survey out and that would really help us in putting the report together and show why it’s so important,” Fischer said.
