Legal Sex, Gender Designation, and Personal Pronoun Statement
What is my legal sex, gender designation and personal pronouns?
Students and employees may select a gender designation and personal pronouns, which certain University systems may then use. In the future, personal pronouns may appear in areas such as Banner Self-Service, class rosters, as a display name in Learning Management Systems (e.g., Blackboard, Canvas, and Moodle), and advising systems. The University will also retain your legal sex which is considered protected data by the University of Illinois System and is disclosed only when required to satisfy state or federal mandates, or other compliance obligations. For further details (including information about legal sex changes), students can refer to the Office of the Registrar. Employees can refer to their local HR department.
Legal Sex – Legal Sex is the binary option of Male or Female, as noted on government issued identification. The University of Illinois System is required to report either “male” or “female” to outside entities that manage retirement and benefit plans, including student health insurance, and for state and federal reporting. It is considered protected data by the University of Illinois System.
Gender Designation – Gender Designation or Gender Identity note a person's internal sense of being a man, a woman, some combination of masculine or feminine, or neither. Gender designation is an optional value and not mandatory for reporting by students and employees. The University of Illinois System recognizes that gender is not limited to, nor always congruent with, the categories available in the legal sex designation, and thus, students and employees are invited to provide gender designation if desired. It is also considered protected data by the University of Illinois System and is disclosed only when required to satisfy state or federal mandates, or other compliance obligations. Aggregate information (percentages and category totals) will be available to appropriate administrative departments.
Personal Pronouns - A personal pronoun is a short word used to refer to people without using their proper name. A personal pronoun may be gendered, gender-neutral, or neopronouns with no inherent link to gender. The election of personal pronouns is optional.
To manage your legal sex:
- Students: If a student needs to update or correct their legal sex once reported initially to the university, please contact the Office of the Registrar to make that update.
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- Employees: Contact your university or System human resources office to request a change to legal sex.
To manage your gender designation and personal pronouns:
- Students: Using campus portal or other resources, enter Banner Student Self-Service and select the Update Personal Information link. In the Personal Details section, click the Edit pencil button.
- Employees: Using My UI Info, My Profile, log into Access My Profile. Scroll to the Demographic Information & Veteran Status section and select Edit.
The Cross functional Gender Subcommittee met over the course of a year to best determine values to use to represent Gender Designation and Personal Pronouns. The Subcommittee represented various student and HR/Payroll units across all three UI Universities and System Office, as well as support units such as student affairs, LGBTQ+ groups, diversity units, and institutional reporting. The values were chosen after reviewing values used by peer institutions and review of recommended values from allied agencies. The Subcommittee members and the Cross functional Team approved the recommended values prior to implementing the collection of this data. While the Subcommittee did consider options to allow multiple or write-in values, the current structure of the student and HR databases only allow one value to be chosen for Gender Designation and one value to be chosen for Personal Pronouns. These systems do not currently allow write-in values.
Providing or changing this information is an optional self-service function. Please be aware that while we are collecting this important information, not all systems are designed to process and/or display this information.
Personal pronouns election may take several days to appear in all systems that include personal pronouns.
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