June 13, 2009 5:15 PM BST
All in a Name: New Software Benefits Transgender Students
http://www.uvm.edu/~uvmpr[...]D=14419
"The new software, created as an adjunct to the Banner student information system, allows students to fill out a form specifying their preferred name and pronoun. The information appears on all paperwork seen by faculty, so petitioning professors individually, a process that gave students no choice but to out themselves, is a thing of the past."
This system keeps financial aid checks and health care locked to the student. It is likely to have widespread adoption in the US. I can't estimate how difficult it would be to use in UK and other country's educational system.
"There's no doubt that, today, UVM is a best-practices institution for students who are transgender, a loose term covering a spectrum of identities and expression, from those who develop a psychological and emotional gender identity different from their biological sex to those whose internal experience of gender doesn't fit neatly into the either of the traditional gender roles. Transgender people may or may not take hormones or undergo surgery.
Since the new software was introduced, the university's campus climate score has risen from 4.5 stars to elite 5-star status on the LGBT website Campus Pride, a distinction it shares with schools like Berkeley, the University of Pennsylvania, Oberlin College, and Carlton College. "
