We want everyone to feel welcome and valued on our campus. Being referred to in ways you want is essential to that. At the same time, some members of our community might not want to publicize their pronouns. They might not feel safe, be ready to do so, or simply not want to. Whether people share their pronouns or not is a personal decision that should be respected in all cases. We support you making the right choice for you right now.
UW users, if they choose to, can update their UW Office 365 profile and Teams/Outlook contact card with their pronouns.
If you are carefully managing your identity and are concerned about your pronouns being exposed to unintended audiences, we urge you to use caution when providing your pronouns to Microsoft. Apps within the Microsoft environment are connected in complicated ways and your pronouns may show up in places that you weren’t expecting them to.
Adding your pronouns to your UW Office 365 profile will directly affect the information that appears on your contact card in SharePoint, Teams, Outlook, and anywhere else that shows your contact info to others within the Microsoft Office suite. Adding your pronouns to your UW Office 365 profile will not affect your profile outside of Microsoft. Your changes will not sync to apps such as apps such as Canvas, Workday, or UW Google.
In addition to the contact cards where your pronouns appear, Microsoft Copilot AI will use your pronouns in various activities, such as in creating Teams meeting summaries or in a Microsoft Copilot chat.
Keep in mind that Microsoft may change at any time where pronouns appear in their tools. Microsoft states that pronoun data is not used for advertising or sold. However, they also remind us that any stored data is potentially subject to data breaches, subpoenas, or misuse in ways users did not originally anticipate. For more information on how Microsoft currently displays your pronouns, please refer to their Pronouns on your profile in Microsoft 365 documentation.
When sharing your pronouns in UW Office 365, assume that your pronouns will be available to everyone using UW Office 365 (UW users as well as guests). Additionally, the UW might be required to share pronoun information found in Microsoft applications in public records requests, subpoenas, or in other situations when required by law.
If you added your pronouns and change your mind, please be aware that pronouns may continue to be visible in the Microsoft environment for up to seven days after a user takes action to remove them.
Before sharing your pronouns, please reflect on these considerations around sharing your pronouns at the UW.
No. It’s always your decision which pronouns (if any) are on your UW Office 365 profile, and they can be added, changed, and removed at any time.
If you have not yet done so, please review:
Since Microsoft may change their user interface at any time, we recommend going straight to the source for the most up-to-date instructions on how to update your pronouns in Microsoft Office.