As a faculty rep

Some ways to make your faculty more LGBT+ friendly:

Improving faculties for trans and non-binary students:

As a faculty rep, you can help to improve faculties for trans and non-binary students. Check out the “Why Gender-Neutral?” campaign for some background information on the changes we are looking for and the progress so far.

As a faculty rep, you can help by…

1) Improving administrative options and processes:

  • Faculties should have clear protocols for changing names, gender markers and other recorded personal information. Find out how this works in your faculty (it can vary). If there aren’t clear protocols in place, ask for this to be addressed.
  • Make sure information is easily available to students wishing to find out how to change their records. Students need to know how the process works and which member/s of staff to contact. Ask the faculty to circulate this information to staff and students, and put it clearly on their website.
  • Look out for inclusive language in faculty correspondence, and remind administrators if you spot any non-inclusion. Please pass on the following guidelines to staff:
  • Gender-neutral language should be used as the default in communications (e.g. “they” instead of “he or she”, “To whom it may concern” instead of “Sir/Madam”).
  • Forms which ask for information about gender should provide options such as “non-binary” and “other” as well as “male” and “female”. All forms should also include a “preferred pronouns” field, and allow students to select the title “Mx” as well as “Mr/Mrs”.
  • Further guidance is available on our website.

2) Asking for suitable toilets:

  • Find out whether your faculty building has gender-neutral toilets (and tell us the answer – lgbt-campaigns@cusu.cam.ac.uk)
  • Let staff know the importance of having gender-neutral toilets available in every building. You can pass on our guide on this topic.
  • Ask faculties to re-label any currently gendered single-stall toilets as gender-neutral.
  • Ask faculties to place sanitary bins in all toilets (trans men need these in the men’s toilets too!).

3) Being in touch with us!

  • Let us know about admin and toilets in your faculty and anything else you think we should know about, and update us if anything changes. Even simply letting us know what the situation is in your faculty is very useful!
  • Tell us which members of staff might be able to help – for example, faculty administrators, staff responsible for welfare, gender equalities, accessibility and learning needs, and anyone who is in a decision-making position. This means we can include them in our emails to staff, and pass their names on to future reps.
  • Ask us for help and advice whenever you need it. For example, if you’d like someone from the campaign to accompany you to help explain these changes to staff, let us know.