Trans & Gender Variant Support

Haverford College is committed to providing an open and inclusive space for Transgender, Non-binary, and Gender Nonconforming students, staff, and faculty.

Name Change and Pronouns

Any questions about name and sex/gender records can be addressed to the GRASE (hc-grase [at] haverford.edu) or Megan Fitch in IITS (mfitch [at] haverford.edu).

Legal Name and Gender Marker (Documentation)

A legal name change can be done without an attorney in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the process typically takes three to six months. Visit TransCentralPA’s resource here to learn more or get started.

A student’s legal name appears on official Haverford documents including the transcript and diploma. We regret that this is required by law. If you have legally changed your name, it’s a good idea to contact the Registrar at hc-registrar [at] haverford.edu, who will revise your Haverford documentation for you.

Your gender marker does not appear on your transcript, but it might be seen by personnel in some databases, such as Health Services (for medical reasons). We regret that the only options available at this time are female and male, and that markers can only be modified after a legal change has taken place.

Preferred Name (Documentation)

Administrative Auxiliary Services: The system that logs the receipt of mail and packages does not regularly sync with Bionic. For support with updating your preferred name with Administrative Auxiliary Services, please reach out to the GRASE Director with subject line: Support with Preferred Name Update.
Bionic: Bionic is an online Bi-Co administrative and academic portal. To add a preferred name, log on to Bionic, click Self Service, and click Update Bio-Demo, which lets you change your preferred name but not your legal name. Bionic feeds into other online systems including Moodle; if you change your preferred name in Bionic, Moodle will update to reflect the change, but the update may take up to an hour.
Email Address: If you have changed your preferred or legal name, you can submit a request to the IITS Service Desk (ITServicedesk [at] haverford.edu) to have your @haverford.edu email address updated. Also, Haverford email communication is powered by Gmail, which allows users to update their preferred name associated with their email address. To do this, click the gear symbol in the upper right corner of your email page (mail.haverford.edu), and under Settings, click the Accounts tab. In the Send Mail As section, click Edit Info and update your preferred name.
EMS: Effective in 2021, your preferred name as entered into Bionic will appear when you are logged into EMS.
Moodle: Moodle is used in many classes to post syllabi, share readings, host class activities, and more. Moodle picks up your preferred name from Bionic and Workday and displays that preferred name as your first name. If Bionic or Workday does not have your preferred name, Moodle may display your legal first name instead. If you have an account in both Bionic and Workday, it is best to update your name information in both systems. Both systems update Moodle; if either of them does not have your preferred name, it may reset your first name in Moodle to your legal name instead of your preferred name.

OneCard

As of August 2017, all OneCards will be printed to reflect preferred name, as entered in Bionic. After changing your preferred name in Bionic, you may obtain a free OneCard replacement from the Campus Safety Office on the first floor of the Gardner Integrated Athletic Center (GIAC). Please work with your Dean to ensure you are not charged for the updated OneCard, and confirm that Campus Safety's database has synced with Bionic before the new OneCard is printed (allow for at least 24 hours, but confirm to be sure).

Please note: if your OneCard does not reflect your legal name, you will not be able to use it to establish residency when you go to vote for the first time in Haverford's local voting district. Fortunately, the state of Pennsylvania does permit those without photo ID to vote if they can present other forms of identification, most notably a passport, a bank statement mailed to you using your legal name and your Haverford mailing address, or a Certificate of Voter Registration, which is a small slip of paper mailed to you after you register to vote.

Workday

Workday is our online Human Resources and Finance system. Anyone who works for the College, including student workers, has a record in Workday. To add or change a preferred name: log on to Workday, select the Personal Information icon, under the Change column select Preferred Name, uncheck the “Use Legal Name As Preferred Name” checkbox, type in the appropriate fields your preferred first, middle, and/or last name, and select the orange Submit button at the bottom of the page. If you change your preferred name in Workday and Bionic, Moodle will update to reflect the change, but the update may take up to an hour.

Gender Identity and Pronouns (Documentation)

In March 2022, a new set of questions in Bionic began addressing gender identity and pronouns more broadly.

Purpose

Collecting this information is important for a number of reasons, including:

Acknowledging and supporting our community members’ identities in our information systems
Emphasizing gender identity rather than sex in descriptions of the composition of the student body, and sharing anonymized data around gender diversity within our community
The ability to measure student success and persistence for individuals with these identities, which better positions the College to identify, understand, and address concerning trends or patterns
Sharing information in appropriate and intentional ways, in order to be more inclusive and respectful in various contexts (including making pronouns available on class rosters and advising lists)

Dissemination

While collecting this information is important, we are bringing considerable care and attention to the limited manner in which community members will have access to such detail.

Information about gender identity will not be visible to other students, only to the advising deans, other staff involved in advising, and faculty advisors.
Information about a student’s pronouns will be visible to staff and faculty with advisor-level permissions in Bionic, as well as those (faculty and/or students) with access to the class roster pages in Bionic and the class rosters in Moodle (note: the Moodle integration will not be complete until the fall 2022 semester).

New Questions

As with all demographic questions (other than those which relate to citizenship status), self-identifying in Bionic through these questions is entirely voluntary and may be changed at any time. Any community member who would prefer not to disclose such information may skip over these questions (which are found in Bionic's "Update Bio Demo" page).

Gender Identity:

Cisgender Man
Cisgender Woman
Genderqueer
Non-binary
None of the listed options
Transgender Man
Transgender Woman

Pronouns:

He/him
He/they
He/she/they
None of the listed options
She/her
She/they
They/them

Future Changes

While we appreciate these changes to Bionic, we also are working with system constraints that limit the number of questions and the possible format/slate of responses. While making these updates is an important step to support students, it is only a first step, and we will continue to seek avenues for improvement driven by both best practices and community feedback. We recognize that definitions and terminology surrounding gender identity are constantly evolving, and welcome suggested edits as we work to make these and other necessary changes across our campus resources and systems.

One example of a desired—but not currently possible—change is to make transgender identity an additional question (i.e. “Do you identify as transgender?”), and to then remove the adjectives “transgender” and “cisgender” from the possible answers to the gender identity question. This would better reflect the ways we know that trans individuals (and all individuals) may identify along or outside of the gender binary. At this time, we cannot add such a question due to system limitations, but hope to do so (or to find another approach) moving forward. We are also unfortunately not able to add free response fields.

Gender-Neutral College Language Policy

To reflect a College community that recognizes and supports a wide range of gender identities, the College has adopted the following policies:

The College has adopted the use of gender-neutral pronouns referring to unspecified community members when referenced in College text and official policies.
- In College text referring to unspecified community members, gender-neutral phrasing they/them/their should be used, rather than him/her, he/she, his/hers, etc.
  Examples of suggested edits to existing language:
  “...attend all classes unless excused in advance by ~~his or her~~ their instructor or dean...” “If a student is lotteried into a class, ~~he or she~~ the student must attend...”
- In text that refers to specific individuals, whether faculty, students, staff, alumni, or others, authors should offer individuals the opportunity to indicate their gender pronouns, rather than making assumptions. The use of gender-specific and gender-neutral pronouns in such cases is equally appropriate and welcome.
The College has adopted the term “first-year” in place of “freshman.”

Download the Gender-Neutral College Language Policy (PDF). If you see instances where existing language should be updated, please notify hc-communications [at] haverford.edu.

Housing and Restrooms

Every first-year student at Haverford goes through the Customs program, which offers trans students built-in spaces to explore identity and reflect on their experience. Customs includes trained upper-class students who foster inclusive dialogue, and opportunities for the entire group to discuss gender identity and sexuality together. For more information on the first-year experience, please visit the First-Year page.

All-gender restrooms are pre-designated in certain Customs Groups, and all other Customs groups will work together upon arrival to designate their restrooms. Incoming first-year students can confidentially express their needs regarding pre-designated all-gender restrooms on the Housing Questionnaire available to matriculating students in the summer before their arrival.

All upper-class housing at Haverford is designated as all-gender housing with all-gender bathrooms. This means that students may live with whomever they choose regardless of gender identity or expression and bathrooms in the residence halls may be used by anyone regardless of gender identity or expression.

In 2015, the College committed to incorporating single-use all-gender bathrooms into all new large-scale capital projects. In 2018, the College announced a comprehensive commitment to ensuring the availability of all-gender bathrooms in each of the academic and administrative buildings on campus.

The Office of Residential Life recognizes that trans students have a wide variety of housing preferences and needs. E-mail the Director of Residential Life (hc-reslife [at] haverford.edu), with individual concerns or questions, or contact the student-chaired Residential Life Committee.

Healthcare and Counseling

GRASE

We recognize that trans* people are sometimes hesitant to access healthcare. Contact GRASE's staff, who are eager to answer your questions and point you in the right direction; they can be reached at hc-grase [at] haverford.edu. Also see the healthcare websites listed in the Resources Beyond Haverford section.

Student Health Insurance Plan (SHIP)

Haverford College is the second college or university in Pennsylvania to offer a trans-inclusive and LGBTQIA-affirming health insurance policy. Review the Student Health Insurance Plan through United Healthcare's summary of Transgender Care benefits and coverage (PDF).

Morris Health Services

Morris Health Services is a safe welcoming place all students. Staff respectfully encourage conversation about trans health and are trained to address students trans healthcare concerns. Health Care services include: Primary care, Preventive Medical Care,Transition-related care, Hormone Therapy, Laboratory Monitoring, and referrals to counseling and community Trans resources.

Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS)

All counselors at Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) hope to help in any way they can regarding gender and sexuality. Students may make an appointment with a CAPS counselor by visiting the CAPS office in Stokes, calling 610-896-1290, or emailing Patty Rawlings at prawling [at] haverford.edu.

Center forGender Resources and Sexuality Equity