Applicants to Bellevue College in Washington state now can choose from seven different options to identify their gender.
They are:
- Feminine
- Masculine
- Androgynous
- Transgender
- Gender neutral
- Other, and
- Prefer not to say
The college says the question will help it create better services and classes for gender-variant students.
While it’s clear that the school is wishing to offer a variety of neutral terms for the applicants’ personal preferences, “Other” seems a bit confusing and non-specific.
The college claims that the purpose of the wider selection of descriptions is to track the variety of students and their performance, and to identify how to better the programs for their success.
Petri Muhlhauser, who is involved in the school’s LCBTQ Center leadership program, believes that the schools need more accommodating programs because students who are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer have unique needs.
The data is 100 percent private and not shared with anyone, and for now will only be used internally. This new data collecting system was accepted by all community and technical colleges in Washington state. (Universal Free Press)