Hi everyone, I’m the Vice President (Welfare) here at the Union of Students, here to tell you about a project I’ve been working on with the University.
Hi everyone, I’m Jack McGuinness, the Vice President (Welfare) here at the University of Derby Union of Students, here to tell you about a project I’ve been working on with the University.
A couple weeks back, I communicated with the Chief Digital Officer at the University of Derby about BlackBoard and the student profiles that Lecturers can access on the system to better understand the individuals they are teaching.
After this, I spoke to Head of Equity, Inclusion, and Wellbeing, who recommended developing a paper to the EDI Committee with a proposal.
And, after doing so, and it being passed with huge support from the EDI Committee, I am pleased to announce that students can now select and promote their preferred pronouns to Lecturers on the BlackBoard systems.
How does it work?
Upon accessing BlackBoard, click on your student profile. In your profile details, there is an criteria marked “Pronouns” with “Add Pronouns” next to it.
Clicking on “Add Pronouns” will allow you to click on a drop-down option for the pronouns to select from.
What if the pronouns I prefer aren’t on the list?
If you aren’t able to find your preferred pronouns on the list, don’t worry, the list isn’t set in stone. What to do if you can’t find your pronouns on the list, put up your pronoun on the Ideas Forum.
If you aren’t comfortable doing that yourself, speak to our LGBTQ+ and Gender Officers, who can be contacted via officer.lgbtq@derbyunion.co.uk and officer.gender@derbyunion.co.uk respectively.
Last bits and bobs.
From the students’ we’ve spoken to about this project, we know that, as an organisation that promotes and expands to include and make everyone feel as welcome as possible, this project will be well received and make those who have pronouns different to their sex feel welcome.
Unfortunately, the BlackBoard and Peoplesoft systems do not link up on this information criteria. What this means is you will need to manually go into BlackBoard and Peoplesoft separately to ensure that staff are able to understand your preferred pronouns.
And lastly, and by no means least, this is not mandatory. If you do not want to, for whatever reason, put or promote pronouns on your student accounts, you do not need to. This is entirely optional.