The switch from using a person’s legal name on IDs to giving students an option is an effort to support transgender students who use a name other than their legal name, according to the release.

The change has already started by University Information Technology Services, who implemented an upgrade to IU’s Information System software this past weekend.

Students who currently have a preferred name in IU’s central database can purchase a new card this week from card services. Any student who currently has their legal name in IU’s central database and wishes to use their preferred name must first update their information in the database and then wait 24 hours before going to card services for a new card, according to the University.

The effort was pushed through by a resolution from the IU Student Association, the Graduate and Professional Student Organization and the Residence Halls ?Association.

The resolution was passed by IUSA in a unanimous vote on Oct. 20, Vice President of Congress Will Wartenberg said.

“It really focuses on LGBT students,” Wartenberg said. “It’s putting their interests, and really their rights, at the forefront of everyone’s minds.”

Andrew Guenther, member of both IUSA and RHA as well as an Indiana Daily Student opinion columnist, wrote the resolution.

“He was the one that championed the bill and sponsored it, and really a lot of the credit goes toward him,” Wartenberg said. “I think a lot of the other credit goes to the associated LGBT groups that came together and really made this an ?issue.”

Student IDs are essential to student life at IUB. The cards are used to access meal points, swiped at libraries, on buses, at gyms, at the IU Health Center, in several classes and various other places on campus.

The new ID option goes beyond a card name, said Barry W. Magee, assistant director of residential life and diversity education at IU’s Residential Programs and Services, in the release.

“It’s more than just, ‘I prefer to go as James as opposed to Jen,’” Magee said in the release. “There’s a much deeper identity transgender students are crafting for themselves that is so intrinsic to who they are.”

Beyond transgender students, the preferred name option is open to any student who makes a valid, approved name change request, according to the University. This includes international students who prefer an Anglicized name or students who go by a middle name.

The ID card option only adds to the support of students, Magee said.

“For students coming into IU through freshman orientation, this is a huge signal that the University cares about you as an individual,” Magee said in the release.

This resolution is only one facet in creating a ?welcoming campus. For the past nine years, RHA’s housing applications have included a transgender category. Each student who marks the transgender category is personally contacted by Magee before room assignments.

Provost and Executive Vice President Lauren Robel expressed thanks in the release to those students who, through the resolution, showed support for transgender students.

“All of our students should feel at home on this campus,” Robel said in the release. “It is powerful and inspirational to see this change arise from students who want to create a welcoming, inclusive ?environment.”

Wartenberg said the resolution is a testament to the power of student voice.

“It’s just a great example of how student voice shaped policy and actual happenings at IU,” Wartenberg said. “All this took was one person saying ‘I have this experience’ or ‘I’ve recognized this as an opportunity to improve the rights of an underrepresented group’”

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