Student Senate passed a resolution to support the change to further the current preferred name policy to Pioneer Passports. This change was debated and passed on Nov. 27 in the University Rooms in the Markee Pioneer Student Center.

“The idea was brought to me by the executive board of the Alliance. They saw other UW schools apply this policy, in which students can put their preferred names on their student IDs,” student director of inclusivity and diversity Grant Disch explains in an email interview.

The Student Senate believes this will allow for more inclusion towards the transgender community here at University of Wisconsin-Platteville, along with setting a school-wide precedence of the importance of inclusion.

“Our director of inclusivity and diversity came up with that initiative. They had gone to the Passport Office and it wasn’t working out,” student body president Lucas Frey said. “We had come to them, they had said no. They had given us the reason that PASS wouldn’t support it, and that our passports are legal IDs for voting. But that doesn’t make sense because I get a voting ID.”

The passport office states that they go off the name that is in PASS. Also, according to ITS, you can go to the University website and search for a preferred name request form. After completed it can be submitted to the Office of the Registrar or online at https://uwplatt.edu/its-news/preferred-name-option-enabled.

After connecting with the Office of the Registrar, Frey was told they already do preferred names in PASS. On D2L you can put your preferred name and it is supported.

Frey also mentioned that UW-Madison and UW-Stevens Point have already created a similar initiative. These universities have helped inspire the approach that the Student Senate is taking with this issue.

“If you look up something on the campus pride index, UW-Platteville has something like 0 on it,” Frey said. “So, how can we be more inclusive of students who are transgender, which I believe was Grant’s [Disch] first initiative but there’s a variety of reasons you would want to use a middle name or not be called what you are legally known as. It was a proactive approach and there was not a reason for it.”

This story is ongoing and will continue to be updated by the Exponent.