Yale has moved to better support gender inclusivity on campus with a new, streamlined preferred name policy. As reported by the Yale Daily News, with the new policy comes, for the first time, the option to change a student’s name on their campus card.

The new policy has been welcomed by LGBTQ activists and enables students to alter their first name on various official Yale documents, email addresses, student ID cards and campus directories. Students wishing to take advantage of the new policy can do so by completing a form on the Student Information Systems website, which replaces an older process that required “significant administrative work.”

The decision to streamline the preferred first name process was aided in part by the university’s Office of LGBTQ Resources. Students and administrators had both expressed the idea that old system was clunky and required an inordinate amount of both digital and physical paperwork, which acted as a deterrent for many students.

The university’s Office of LGBTQ Resources estimates that some 30% of Yale students currently report using preferred first names on Yale forms. The U.S. Department of Education provided guidance to Yale on the issue earlier in 2016, while the Office of LBGTQ Resources has been recommending the change to Yale administration for nearly 6 years.

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