Last month, MSU IT enabled the option for students, staff and faculty to add personal gender pronouns to their Microsoft 365 profiles.
Users can add, change or delete their pronouns by selecting their profile card in Microsoft Teams or Outlook and clicking the banner under their name that reads “+ Pronouns.”
While use of the feature is optional, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Administrator Tina Alonzo hopes it will help reduce assumptions and foster a culture of gender inclusion on campus.
“Pronouns are used every day to communicate with people around us, and it’s important we use the correct words as one way to respectfully talk about and reference one another,” Alonzo said.
RCAH senior Angela Demas said the feature will make her role as public relations coordinator for MSU Alliance, an LGBTQ+ student organization, a little easier.
“Just being able to share what pronouns I use, or know what pronouns they use if they choose to share them, can be very important with communication,” Demas said.
To Elias Young, president of LGBTQ+ centered organization HOUS MSU, this option takes away the stress of having to directly request that others use their correct pronouns in email or other online exchanges.
“It doesn’t seem like a big thing, but if more people are doing it, it can make life easier,” Young said.
While he hopes this feature will help normalize sharing one’s pronouns, Young also worries it could end up singling out queer or transgender students if they are the only ones to make use of the feature.
Jarret Kinville, president of Broad College Spartan Pride, said that people who are ignorant or unaware of alternative pronouns feel like they’re expected to know how people identify without meeting or knowing them first. This feature will hopefully ease that confusion.
“Being able to have it publicly but not in your face is pretty important,” Kinville said.
His current job doesn’t give employees a way to subtly share their pronouns, which Kinville says prevents him from sharing how he identifies in person.
“I usually don’t introduce myself with pronouns because I don't want that awkward interaction,”Kinville said. “I hope that it makes people more comfortable … to express themselves how they see fit.”
For detailed instructions on how to add personal pronouns to a Microsoft profile, students and faculty can visit tech.msu.edu.
Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.
