The Universal College Application and Common Application recently announced the change in the way the College Applications ask about gender. College students can now define their gender identity on the Common Application and Universal College Application.
According to TakePart, for the school year 2016-2017, both standardized application forms can be sent to more than 600 colleges jointly. The applications will feature an updated language that will enable applicants to disclose their gender identity in greater detail.
Gabe Murchison, a senior research manager at Human Rights Campaign, wrote in an email, "A gender identity field on applications indicates that schools should take this information seriously and gives them the opportunity to address and assign students appropriately. Murchison also added, "Transgender applicants will feel welcomed and included, which is especially crucial for young adults in the process of joining a new community."
On the Universal College Application, the question asking for the applicants "sex" will be updated. It will now ask for "legal sex" with the options included both "male" and "female".
College applicants will also have the choice to answer an additional question on gender identity with the options "male", "female", or "self-identify", for which the applicant can view an open text field in the application form.
The change in the college application form has long been discussed before it has been finally approved for the upcoming school year. Yahoo! News reported that the LGBT advocates showed their concern about discriminations happening in universities. They expressed that some universities are inconspicuously obtaining the right to discriminate against students based on their sexual orientation or gender identity.
The Common Application claimed that the question wanting to know the applicant's "sex" will now ask for "sex assigned at birth", then this will also include a text field in which applicants can talk about their gender identity. Universities can also seek information about gender identity on supplemental application forms exclusive to their school.
"We want to make sure that all students have the ability to express themselves in the ways in which they feel most comfortable," Gil Villanueva, the chairman of the Common Application's board of directors and dean of admissions at the University of Richmond, said in a statement. He also claimed that adding more detailed questions on gender also saves transgender students the trouble of having to inform the school when their gender shows up incorrectly.
Meanwhile, a lot of universities already showed their strong support towards the inclusion of questions on gender. In fact, they stated that the inclusion of the transgender community on the college applications proves a historic change in how colleges and universities look at gender.
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