UVA students scrap gendered pronouns from constitution

Nearly 89 percent of students who voted in the University of Virginia’s recent Student Council elections approved removing gendered pronouns from their constitution.

The first referendum question on the students’ ballot was entitled “Modernization and Inclusion of Student Council Constitution.” As University of Virginia Student Council Director of University Relations Noah Strike confirmed to Campus Reform, the updates strike “any use of ‘he or she,’ him or her,’ or ‘his or hers’ to the gender-neutral singular ‘they’ pronoun” in the student government’s constitution.

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“Seeing as our offices are all gender-neutral (i.e. not limited to ‘men only’ etc.), the update reflects how students of any gender identity could serve in positions,” explained Strike.

According to Strike, 25 percent of the student body voted on the referendum question, with 88.75 percent approving the passage. The minimum threshold for passage is a 66.6 percent affirmative vote.

Strike told Campus Reform that the team is currently working to update the existing constitution. The current version was last amended in February 2008.

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According to Strike, the University of Virginia Honor Committee’s governing documents were “updated to include gender-neutral pronouns” in 2018.

As Campus Reform recently reported, the University of Virginia Student Council recently passed legislation to encourage the university to “divest” from fossil fuel investments.

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Campus Reform reached out to the University of Virginia for comment; this article will be updated accordingly.

Follow the author of this article on Twitter: @BenZeisloft