Good Practices: Inventory Your Good Practices

As with good practices generally, any advice must be combined with a specific context and use of good judgement in order to determine what is appropriate to a specific situation. This page is part of the broader #TransTerps campaign, and on this site you can find out more about trainings, good practices, and resources and policies for supporting trans folks on campus.

Please review the following inventory of good practice questions with your office or group, and then you can fill out the inventory form with the answers that best describe where your office/group is currently. Please note that not every good practice is equally appropriate to every context and situation. The value is in having a meaningful conversation about trans inclusion within your division, department, office, area, or group.

1. In the last two years, have any members of your office/group received any training on gender identity/expression (such as trainings at UMD, online webinars, professional development off campus, or in-house trainings)?

2. Are individuals who work in or visit the areas where you meet, work, or conduct events made aware of where to access the nearest gender-inclusive restrooms?

3. When distributing forms that ask for gender information (e.g. applications, event registrations, surveys, etc. -- assuming gender information is truly relevant and necessary), are respondents able to self-identify and to choose an option other than just being a man or a woman (i.e. nonbinary/other)?

4. In the last year, has your office/group publicized trans-inclusive campus resources to faculty, staff, and/or students?

5. When developing outreach strategies (e.g. social media, programming, etc.), do you intentionally and explicitly engage trans constituents?

6. Do the people in your office/group include their pronouns on their business cards? (a practice that should be optional, but encouraged/available)

7. Do the people in your office/group include their pronouns on their email signatures? (a practice that should be optional, but encouraged/available)

8. Do the people in your office/group use gender-inclusive language in your informal and formal communications (for example, saying "next guest" instead of calling someone "sir" or assuming a gender, using “they” or “folks” or "that person" instead of “he or she” ... using "friends and colleagues" or "people of all genders" or something else instead of "ladies and gentlemen" or other references that presume only two genders)?

9. In classes/meetings/groups, are people invited to introduce themselves by sharing their chosen name and pronouns?

10. Do you and members of your office/group refer to people by their chosen names and pronouns in verbal and written communications? (This includes not assigning someone “Mr. or “Ms.,” based on an assumption about their gender identity.)

11. If your area has faculty/instructors, do they include a statement in their syllabus supporting students in honoring their names/pronouns?

12. Does your office/group inform individuals who work in or visit your area that they can use the gendered (i.e., male or female) facilities that correspond to their gender identity (under our campus non-discrimination policy)?

13. Are students and employees made aware by your office/group that they can report concerns about discrimination based on gender identity or expression (as well as other types of discrimination) to the Office of Civil Rights & Sexual Misconduct?

14. Are students and employees made aware by your office/group that they can change their name and gender marker in campus records by request?

15. Are students and employees allowed to indicate a chosen name and their pronouns on localized departmental records, including class rosters and directory listings?