• Develop and publicize a trans-supportive policy that recognizes and respects the gender identity of the student. In addition to a general policy, each department (including, but not limited to: Admissions, Registrar, Residential Life, Campus Facilities, Health Center and Fraternities and Sororities) should adopt a trans-supportive policy. The policy should be easily accessible on the school’s website. The school and each department should designate an administrator as a point person responsible for enforcing these policies.
• Include “gender identity and expression” explicitly in the institution’s general nondiscrimination policy. Or clarify existing protections on the basis of sex to include gender identity just as the federal government has done. (For example, the Office of Personnel Management has clarified that its existing nondiscrimination protections because of sex include gender identity; see “Workplace Rights and Wrongs.”) Include anti-trans acts in harassment and bias incident policies in accordance with campus judicial enforcement.
• Before asking for gender identity, critically examine if a student’s gender is really needed on a document. For example, is gender identity relevant to a student’s participation in a career center event?
• Allow students to designate their chosen name (even if distinct from their legal name) on all electronic and hard copy documents (i.e., admissions and matriculation records, medical records, class rosters, transcripts, ID cards and diplomas). In accordance with FERPA, students should be allowed to change their legal name and gender marker upon request (i.e., without a letter from a therapist or doctor and without the need to change other documents).
• Policies and procedures related to changing names and gender markers should be easily accessible on the school’s website.

Develop and publicize a trans-supportive housing policy, which states that:

1. Students who inform the college that they are trans in a timely manner will be housed in keeping with their gender identity; and

2. Every attempt will be made to give trans students safe and comfortable housing assignments.

Establish a gender-inclusive housing (GIH) option that:

1. is available for both new and returning students;

2. is separate from an LGBTQ-themed floor;

3. is open to all students, not just to trans students;

4. is offered in different parts of campus and, if possible, in different types of housing (doubles, suites, apartments); and

5. includes gender-inclusive bathrooms/showers (see below.

• If applicable to your college or university, remove discriminatory exclusions for transgender health care in student and staff insurance plans to ensure equal coverage for medically necessary care.
• Regularly train physicians so that they can provide trans-specific health care including: initiating hormone treatment, writing prescriptions for hormones and monitoring hormone levels for transitioning students.
• Have at least one Counseling Center therapist who has the training and experience to be able to write letters for transitioning students to access hormones. Develop and publicize a list of area therapists who can provide trans-supportive gender therapy for students who are transitioning or who are struggling with their gender identity.
• Offer a support group for trans and gender-nonconforming students.
• Have prescriptions and lab orders written in such a way that the name a student uses is called out at the pharmacy and lab.
• Appoint a patient advocate or have a visible procedure for trans students (as well as other students) to report concerns and instances of poor treatment.

• Develop policies that allow transgender students to participate in single-sex sports in accordance with their gender identity.
• Model policy from U Mass Amherst: “When an activity makes a gender designation, an individual who has transitioned to a different gender can participate in the division of the individual’s current gender. If an individual is in the process of transitioning to a different gender, participation in a particular gender designated activity will be handled on a case-by-case basis.