Set and view personal pronouns at IU

On this page:

Overview
IU systems with pronoun support

Overview

Referring to people by their personal pronouns helps to create a more inclusive and welcoming environment for all members of the Indiana University community. Currently, two different university applications allow individuals to set and update their pronouns: Canvas and the SIS Student Center (for students only). The Student Center implementation represents the first step towards centralizing pronoun data for all students, faculty, and staff at IU. Once this process is complete, it should only be necessary to set your pronouns in your student or employee record.

Note:

The self-reporting of gender identity and sexual orientation should be available to staff and faculty in the fall of 2023.
To share your pronouns in IU systems, use the following:
- Students: The My Profile section of the SIS Student Center. The SIS Student Center serves as IU's official source for student pronoun data. See Specify Gender Pronouns in the SIS Student Center
- Faculty and staff: Canvas; see How do I select personal pronouns in my user account as an instructor?
- Guests enrolled in non-credit courses: Canvas; see How do I select personal pronouns in my user account as a student?
For information about updating your gender status with IU, see How to update your gender status; for information about IU policy related to gender expression, see Non-Discrimination/Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action (UA-01).

IU systems with pronoun support

Currently, the following tools and services at Indiana University allow users to set their own personal pronouns, view the pronouns of other users, or both.

System name	Who can set pronouns	Who can view pronouns	Data source for pronouns
SIS Student Center	Enrolled students	Enrolled students can view and edit their own pronouns	Input directly by enrolled students
Canvas	All Canvas users ¹	All members of Canvas classes in which you're enrolled; some technical support staff. For details about where your pronouns appear, see the table below.	Students: Updated nightly with data from the SIS Student Center All other Canvas users: Input directly by Canvas users
IU Photo Roster in Canvas	N/A	All members of Canvas classes in which you're enrolled; some technical support staff	Canvas (which takes student pronoun data from SIS as described above)
Advising Records (AdRx)	N/A	Your academic advisor, success coach, and any other AdRx user with the correct permissions	SIS Student Center
SIS Class Rosters	N/A	Instructors, TAs, grading proxies, and some technical support staff	SIS Student Center

Notes:

1 Students are strongly encouraged to set their pronouns in the SIS Student Center, not Canvas.

Locations in Canvas where your pronouns appear

Canvas page/tool/feature	Instructor view	Student view
Announcements ¹	✔Yes	✔Yes
Assignments > peer review assignments	✔Yes	No
Discussions ¹	✔Yes	✔Yes
Inbox/Conversations ¹	✔Yes	✔Yes
IU Photo Roster	✔Yes	✔Yes
People (course and group sites)	✔Yes	✔Yes
People > student context cards	✔Yes	No
SpeedGrader	✔Yes	No
Settings > Sections > Section Roster	✔Yes	No
User Account Navigation menu	✔Yes	✔Yes
User settings	Self only	Self only
User profile	✔Yes	✔Yes

Notes:

1 Pronouns are not included in notifications sent via email or SMS.