FILE – This Sept. 9, 2016 photo shows Harkness Tower on the campus of Yale University in New Haven, Conn. Three women who attend the university are suing the school and nine of its all-male fraternities Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019, seeking to force the social organizations to admit women in response to alleged sexual assault, harassment and discrimination. (AP Photo/Beth J. Harpaz, File)
Students at Yale University can change their preferred gender, including to non-binary, in the Student Information System (SIS), according to a recent Yale Daily News article (students-can-now-register-as-non-binary-with-sis).
SIS is Yale’s version of Student Admin at the University of Connecticut.
At UConn, students first recognize their preferred gender to the university through application programs like the Common Application or the Coalition for College, which are the two systems UConn uses, UConn Deputy Spokesperson Michael Enright said.
“In both, students have a choice of selecting male, female or there is an option for a free form text space for the student to enter anything else,” Enright said.
The change at Yale came after Trans Rights Coalition, a student run group, petitioned Yale President Peter Salo to “uphold, protect and reinforce trans rights at Yale,” the article said.
Similarly to UConn’s systems, students at Yale can enter further information regarding their gender into a text box if “M” for male, “F” for female or “N” for non-binary does not apply to them, the article said.
Students at UConn are not required to identify at all if they do not want to, Enright said.
“In the registration process, UConn, as a public institution, is required by Federal Law to report male and female breakdown, so those are the only two choices,” Enright said. “However, a student can leave that space blank and they are not reported either way.”
In addition to gender, Enright added that students can list a favored name to be listed on official University documents.
“In addition, for class rosters and diplomas, the ‘preferred name’ a student registers with, as opposed to their ‘primary’ name, is used,” Enright said.
The change went over well with non-binary Yale student Sasha Carney.
“This is a great step towards making records systems, that can often be very complex and restrictive to navigate, that bit more validating for trans Yalies,” Carney told the Yale Daily News. “It’s great that it’s easily accessible and requires no legal documentation.”
Luke Hajdasz is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. He can be reached via email at luke.hajdasz@uconn.edu.
