|
To: All campus
Oct. 19, 2022
Dear Campus Community,
UC Merced’s enduring commitment to our Principles of Community and to pursuing inclusive excellence drives our efforts to continuously analyze and improve how we engage, collaborate, teach, innovate, and learn. It is in this spirit that I invite you to gain an understanding of, and actively support, the University of California’s Gender Recognition and Lived Name Policy, prior to the rollout of changes to our data systems across campus.
On Nov. 10, 2020, UC President Michael Drake announced the policy, which is based on SB179 passed in the California Legislature in 2017. The purpose of the policy is to ensure that all individuals are identified by their accurate gender identity and lived or preferred name on university-issued documents and information systems.
This policy is designed to advance inclusive excellence by not only supporting the transgender and gender non-binary community, but by respecting and celebrating deeply held identities of students, faculty, staff, alumni and those in the many communities UC Merced serves as a public research university.
The Gender Recognition and Lived Name policy mandates that all campuses be in alignment by June 30, 2024, in the following ways:
- By providing three equally recognized gender options in university information systems — woman, man and nonbinary.
- By implementing an efficient process for current students, faculty and staff, along with UC alumni and affiliates, to retroactively amend their gender designations and lived or preferred names on university-issued documents, including eligible academic documents, and in information systems.
Over the course of the next year and a half, we will be updating campus systems and resources, beginning with the Banner student data management system this weekend, in compliance with the policy and will continue to update you on our progress. I encourage you to visit the new Gender Recognition and Lived Name website and to consult the resources we have made available to promote an inclusive culture in support of the transgender and gender non-binary community at UC Merced, and in the service of affirming the dignity of all our community members.
Respectfully,
Delia Saenz, Ph.D.
Vice Chancellor and Chief Diversity Officer
| 
