Note: The Lawrence Times runs opinion columns and letters to the Times written by community members with varying perspectives on local issues. These pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Times staff.
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I am a professor at KU, and I write this letter immediately after removing my pronouns (she/her) from the signature block on my KU email account. On Tuesday, Chancellor Douglas Girod instructed all KU faculty and staff to “remove gender-identifying pronouns or gender ideology from email signature blocks on state employee’s email accounts and any other form of communication” by July 31. Girod cited to a Kansas legislative “budget proviso directed towards various DEI measures at state agencies.”
While each of the five directives Girod announced will be immediately detrimental to the university and our students (e.g., eliminating any positions that relate to DEI; eliminating any mandates, policies, programs, preferences and activities relating to DEI; eliminating any training requirements in DEI for any employee; and canceling any state grants or contracts relating to DEI), the directive to remove pronouns from signature blocks is uniquely harmful to many KU students.
Related news article:
• In final push to boot DEI initiatives, KU tells employees to remove pronouns from email signatures, July 22, 2025
Why do I include my pronouns in my signature block, and why is it important to me? I do it to tell my most marginalized students — my LGBTQIA and nonbinary students — that I recognize and support their existence. I am telling my queer students that I have thought about how making gender assumptions (sometimes resulting in inaccurate gender assumptions) might result in a student feeling embarrassed or alienated — this is the opposite of how I want my students to feel. When my students see that I have included my pronouns in my signature, they feel they are communicating with a safe person. I know this, because my queer students have told me so …
I also include my pronouns for my non-LGBTQIA students to act as a role model for acceptance and tolerance of groups to which we might not belong. By example, I am showing my students that we can easily include all Jayhawks on campus, no matter who they love or with which gender they identify. Naming one’s pronouns does no harm to anyone, and it supports every KU student on campus.
Over my eight years at KU, I have taught thousands of KU students, many of whom are lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer (or questioning), and I likely have had students who are asexual or intersexual. I know these students, and they exist on campus — the Kansas Legislature cannot erase them away with their budget provisions.
My heart breaks for the LGBTQIA and nonbinary KU students who will feel further pushed to the margins as a result of this new university directive. I will work to ensure that my students continue to recognize me as a safe place, notwithstanding that I am prohibited from communicating that via email.
Until July 31, signing off as Amii Castle (she/her).
— Amii Castle (she/her), KU professor, Lawrence
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