Inclusive Identity
Within the UMass system, there have been continuing efforts to better understand the needs of different communities of people and to make life on campus more comfortable for all students, faculty, and staff. The goal is for UMass Boston and its sister campuses to be not only diverse, but inclusive and welcoming to people of all identities and from all walks of life. Progress has been made in these efforts in 2024, with updates to the way employee identities are listed in HR Direct. “We are a higher ed institution and we want to ensure that people feel comfortable here in all aspects. Inclusivity is key in making people feel as comfortable as possible,” says Paul McLaughlin, Manager of HR Info Systems.
The first phase of the project has added features allowing employees to enter their pronouns into HR Direct, the software that captures employee data. It also involved changing the sex field to add two options—“unknown” and “X”—in addition to the existing “male” and “female” ones. The second phase will bring the ability to insert a chosen name as well as gender identity in the system. As IT Consultant Scot Cohen notes, there is much behind-the-scenes work—coding changes, testing, and so forth—needed to make even the smallest of system changes. “You would think that you would just be able to turn the lights on and changes would appear everywhere,” says McLaughlin. “It takes a lot of coordination and communication, as well as education.”
Eventually, there is hope that employees will also have control over their name and pronouns in other places, including Wiser and Canvas. “Names and pronouns are
a way that people communicate who they are to the world and can be really important and meaningful. Research has found that using the wrong name/pronoun for trans people contributes to anxiety and depression, or what scholars call minority stress,” says Dr. Chris Barcelos, an Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender, & Sexuality Studies and the Director of UMass Boston’s minor in Queer & Trans Studies. Barcelos also highlights the importance of non-trans people using these new features, which takes some of the burden off of trans people having to educate others. “When people who aren’t visibly queer or trans share their pronouns it helps to normalize it as a part of our everyday interactions,” Barcelos says.