Elon University registrar Rodney Parks is making big changes in gender identification on campus. Parks has tried to make it easier for transgender students to get their diploma changed to their preferred pronoun. So transgender students who graduated can come back and get their diploma's reprinted the way they want them. According to Parks three alumni have already come back and had their diploma's changed, which surprised him because he is not advertising it in any way.
"This year we actually had a first year student that reached out to us and alerted us that she was coming and that she was transgender and she wanted it to go smoothly," Parks said.
This was the start for Elon to start taking initiative in helping make sure students are identified the way they want to be identified. Parks said in the beginning they had students come to the office and say which name or pronoun they wanted to be called.
"Once we did that we started going through the process of becoming one of the first schools of identifying gender on class rolls, grade rolls and advising screens," Parks said.
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Parks said this is no easy task, but feels it is important for students and the entire Elon community and that students shouldn't have to tell their teachers every class the name they want to be called.
Elon has even caught the eye of other schools, Parks said that three other schools, like Tulane and the University of Wisconsin have reached out to Elon for "help" putting this system into place at their respective schools.
Parks still believes the university has a long way to go, and plan for more initiatives in the future.
"We need as a campus to educate and grow we have the theme term coming up and there is an opportunity for us to start working through some of these diversity of initiatives," Parks said.
Parks also encourages students to come by their office in Alamance 102 with questions or concerns.