Life

All students (including graduate students) will now be able to indicate their pronouns in GOLD and other university systems. This comes after a long time effort from UCSB's Trans Taskforce, which has been advocating for more gender-inclusive policies on campus.

By Sam del Castillo, Diversity and Outreach Peer Advisor
Thursday, September 19th, 2019 - 12:29pm


All students (including graduate students) will now be able to indicate their pronouns in GOLD and other university systems. This comes after a long time effort from UCSB's Trans Taskforce, which has been advocating for more gender-inclusive policies on campus.

For the official announcement from Margaret Klawunn - Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs, please see below:

The Division of Student Affairs and the UCSB Trans Task Force are excited to announce that beginning September 13, 2019, students will be able to indicate their pronouns in the Gaucho On-Line Data (GOLD) system, which will then be displayed in eGrades and GauchoSpace. Pronouns are words used in place of someone's name when a person is referred to in the third person. This new functionality will result in pronouns showing up on course rosters in eGrades and GauchoSpace, so students are being referred to by the correct pronouns. Students can specify their pronouns by going into GOLD and choosing one of the following options from a drop-down list in the "Pronouns" section (below the "Preferred Name" section) on the "My Personal Info" section of GOLD:

  • He/Him/His
  • She/Her/Hers
  • They/Them/Theirs
  • Ze/Hir/Hirs
  • I do not use a pronoun.
  • Other, please ask.
  • I use all gender pronouns.

Once students have selected a pronoun, this information will show up on course rosters in eGrades and GauchoSpace for faculty, instructors, lecturers, TAs, and other students to use the correct pronouns when referring to students. All students are encouraged to indicate their pronouns in GOLD. This change comes in response to longtime advocacy from students and the Trans Task Force to reduce the frequency of students having incorrect pronouns used to refer to them in classrooms and other learning environments. The UCSB Gender Recognition Act Task Force provided their support for launching this initiative as part of UCSB's commitment to making our campus welcoming for all members of our community, including transgender, nonbinary, and gender non-conforming students. The right of students to designate pronouns is protected by Title IX, the California Fair Employment and Housing Act, and UC System-wide discrimination and harassment policies. This is the first phase of adding pronouns to university systems with possible future phases adding pronoun information to more campus systems and providing pronoun options for faculty and staff. For more information, please visit the following resources: Registrar Pronouns SiteRCSGD Pronouns Site

For more information on the Trans Taskforce, please click here.