A Guide for Colleges on Gender Identity and Pronouns

For the Common Application, Genny wrote A Brief Guide to Common App’s Name, Sex, and Gender Questions for Member Institutions. Common App is the admissions form used by more than 1,000 colleges in the U.S. In 2021, Common App added optional questions asking gender identity and pronouns, and this guide suggests how colleges should use this information to support their incoming trans and nonbinary students.

Campus Pride Releases a Report of Genny’s Analysis of Data on Incoming Trans and Nonbinary College Students

Genny conducted an analysis of students’ gender identity, race, first-generation status, and pronoun responses on the Common App, the admissions form used by more than 1,000 colleges. Students entering college this fall were the first group to be given the opportunity to indicate their gender identity and pronouns on the form. The Campus Pride report, “The Changing Nature of Gender in the 21st Century: How Trans and Nonbinary Students Applying to College Today Self-Identify,” is available here.

Research on Pronoun Use Among 2022 Incoming College Students Published

Genny’s article, “College Students Are Increasingly Identifying Beyond ‘She’ and ‘He’,” was published in The Conversation, providing insight into pronoun usage among incoming college freshmen. Based on findings from their research on data submitted by over 1 million prospective students to the Common App, the article indicates that nonbinary college students are using a wide variety of pronouns, but also commonly using “they/them.”

More findings from Genny’s research can be found on the 2022 Common App Research page of this site.

Urging the Dept of Education to Include Nonbinary Students

On behalf of Campus Pride, Genny wrote a group letter to the Department of Education to urge them to change their system for how colleges report data on the gender of their students to be inclusive of nonbinary students.

The letter was signed by dozens of national higher education and LGBTQIA+ organizations, including ACPA, NASPA, AAC&U, AASCU, ACUHO-I, the Consortium of Higher Education LGBT Resource Professionals, CenterLink: The Community of LGBT Centers, GLSEN, PFLAG, the National Black Justice Coalition, and the National Center for Transgender Equality.