Including rainbow students

Advice for including rainbow students.

Legal and preferred name

Typically, only a student’s legal name will appear on Nuku, student ID cards, transcripts, and so on. Finding a studen'ts preferred name through enrolments and other university systems can be time consuming.

Therefore, it is important to note that, although legal names may appear on rolls, preferred names should always be used. You can learn a student’s preferred name in the exercise below on pronouns. Students can contact Admissions and Enrolments for information regarding name changes.

Pronouns

Tutors can create an inclusive environment where all students feel comfortable and respected, by learning their students’ pronouns. An example of some common pronouns are: “he/his/him”, “she/hers/her”, and “they/their/them”. These can change.

In initial tutorials, tutors can introduce themselves to the class by stating their preferred name and their pronouns. For example: “My name is Zoe and I use she/her pronouns”.

Students can then take turns and introduce themselves to the class using the same format. This way both the tutor and other students in class learn everyone’s pronouns.

Staff can find other ways to incorporate their pronouns such as in email signatures or on staff name badges.

Gendered language

Gendered language can appear in conversation more frequently than you may realise.

In English, gendered language can appear as a bias towards a particular sex or gender. For example, referring to any hypothetical person who conducts business as a ‘businessman’ is gendered and could be interpreted that only men conduct business. More neutral language can replace this such as ‘business person’.