The Scarlet & Black is instituting a new policy regarding pronouns. As of this week, we will refer to individuals by their pronoun of choice, including gender-neutral pronouns such as “ze” and “zir.” If no pronoun is specified, we will continue to use “he” and “she.” Our previous policy was to use only “he” and “she” pronouns and to avoid the use of pronouns entirely when an individual has requested a different pronoun.

We are making this change in the hopes of becoming a more inclusive and socially just publication. We formerly adhered to the practices of the Associated Press, which uses only “he” and “she.” However, we came to the conclusion that this style does not properly reflect the variety of identities of the Grinnell student body, nor the principles of our institution, as established in our Student Statement of Values. Therefore, we make this change in order to create a more comfortable atmosphere for our audience and report on that audience in the most accurate manner. We further hope to engender discussion about the spectrum of identities present on this campus.

We recognize that using non-standard pronouns may be confusing to our readers at first. There will be a brief editor’s note accompanying each article in which they are used and this editorial will be linked to each article online. If any of our readers have any questions or comments about this policy, we welcome letters to the editor, which will be published in upcoming weeks.