Kenyon’s student portal, MyBanner, is becoming more inclusive. A new set of features is coming online to ensure that students of diverse identities feel accommodated by the College. While not yet fully implemented, several new options are already  available to students.

The Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (ODEI) is working with Information Technical Services (ITS) to incorporate the new features on MyBanner, a platform that allows students to access resources that relate to their academic career. New features include the ability to self-select personal pronouns and gender identity, and to input a chosen or preferred name.

Timothy Bussey, assistant director of ODEI, says one goal of these new features is to develop the system to a point where class rosters will properly reflect a student’s pronouns and chosen name. While this feature is not fully implemented at this time, the system is already collecting chosen name and pronoun data. This means that students can now log into MyBanner and update their personal information to include their chosen name, pronouns and gender identity.

“The chosen name column should already be migrating [to] a few places on campus with a few reports that people run,” Bussey said. “In terms of class rosters, that’s something that we’re hopeful to get up as soon as possible, and every effort is being made to make sure that happens before the start of next semester.”

Bussey encourages all students to use these new features to include their pronouns. More information and instruction on how to do this can be found on the webpage “Trans at Kenyon,” on the Kenyon website.