The resolution was introduced with the intent of protecting transgender students who prefer to use a name other than their official name, said Representative Jonathan Trites, who introduced the bill.

“Right now, the way it works is you come into the school and you give your official name, and that’s what’s used for all official documents,” he said during the meeting.

Trites said the lack of an option to put a preferred name instead affects the transgender community who might wish to protect their privacy.

“Professors might call out, ‘Bob,’ and you want to go by, ‘Susie,’” he said. “It’s just so we don’t out people in classrooms.”

Zachary Taylor, internal vice chairman for Academic Assembly, said Northwestern University and the University of Vermont already have a similar preferred-name policy in place.

“(They) operate under a system where you go into StuInfo and change the preferred name that is used within the university,” he said during the meeting. “Official documents would still have your official name on it, but the class roster that professors see would have your preferred name on it.”

The resolution passed by consent, meaning that it passed unanimously without an individual vote.

A bill also was introduced by Taylor that would advocate for changes to the University’s Attendance Policy. The bill called for a more nuanced policy that would allow students more flexibility to determine with their professors when an absence might not impact their grade.

“A couple weeks ago, this committee and the assembly approved that this is something we need to do,” he said. “This is the actual vision for what this committee and what this assembly thinks our policies need to be.”

Taylor said a large chunk of the document, which would specify what changes ASMSU would like to see to the policy, came from the University of Illinois’s policy.

The bill was postponed until further notice to give representatives time to read the language carefully before giving it their approval.