To: Graduate students at the University of Waterloo
From: Marianne Simm, Director, Graduate Studies and Postdoctoral Affairs (GSPA)
Date: Monday, June 12, 2023
Subject: Select your pronouns in Quest
A pronoun is a word used to describe you when being spoken of in the third person (i.e., when not being directly addressed), such as they, she, he, or xie. For more information, visit the Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Anti-Racism resource FAQ page.
Beginning today, you can choose to select your pronoun(s) in Quest; your selection, if you choose to make one, can be changed or deleted at any time.
Currently, your pronoun selection will be accessible by instructors and employees with Quest access. The University is working to provide your pronouns to other systems across campus (e.g., LEARN, WaterlooWorks).
For detailed instructions on how to select or update your pronoun selection in Quest, visit How do I view or update my personal information? Instructors and academic advisors/program co-ordinators are being advised to use the pronouns on their class rosters and to regularly check for updates. As there is no mechanism in Quest to automatically notify instructors of updates in pronoun information, instructors will have to re-download their class roster at regular intervals. This means that some instructors may not see changes in your pronoun information immediately – depending on when they refresh their class roster.