As required by Oregon law, the University of Oregon has updated the collection of biographical data to include two new questions regarding gender identity and sexual orientation alongside an existing question on legal sex designation. Answering these questions is voluntary.
Why Are We Collecting this Information?
We celebrate the diversity of our campus community in welcoming prospective students to identify themselves through these responses.
You should know that, regardless of your answers to the voluntary questions, the UO is committed to supporting our LGBTQIA+ students.
For support service information and general information, please visit Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Education and Support Services.
- Legal Sex Designation*
UO is required to collect this data in order to comply with federal reporting including IPEDS reporting, student employment, international student status and the granting of federal financial aid.
If you are an employee or federal aid recipient your designation must match your sex designation with the Social Security office.
If you are an international student your designation must match the sex designation on your passport.
- Gender*
UO recognizes that gender is not limited to, nor always congruent with, the categories available in legal sex designation.
- Sexual Orientation*
Along with other biographical information such as race, collecting sexual orientation allows UO and the state of Oregon to analyze important information related to student success and retention rates for specific communities of students.
This allows us to advocate for resources, scholarships and provide appropriate services at UO.
This information will not be used in admission decisions.
* The categories listed for all three questions were designated by the State of Oregon Higher Education Coordinating Commission (HECC).
Who Has Access to this Information?
Unit level data (your name associated with your responses) will only be available to limited staff in the Division of Graduate Studies as well as limited staff in offices that are responsible for data collection for the institution – primarily Admissions, Institutional Research, and the Office of the Registrar.
Your individual responses will not be viewable by general university academic departments. Aggregate information (percentages and category totals) will be available to administrative departments at the institution, and reported to the state.
Aggregate data will be reported to the state of Oregon as required by Senate Bill 473.
How Will We Use this Information?
At this time, the information will only be used for aggregate reporting within the campus and, once requested, to the state.
No individual information is to be shared with other offices at this time, until further discussion takes place.
If the policy on sharing information changes, you will be contacted with updated information and the opportunity to change or remove your responses.
Additional Information
In order to update your legal sex designation, you will need to provide government issued ID to the Office of the Registrar if you are a student or to Human Resources if you are an employee.
While it is not yet possible to update your responses to these two new questions in DuckWeb/Banner Self-Service, we hope to have this option available soon. When we do, this page will be updated.
Please email the Division of Graduate Studies with questions, comments, or concerns.
Glossary of Terms
- Agender 1
Not identifying with any gender, the feeling of having no gender
- Androgyne 3
1. A person whose biological sex is not readily apparent.
2. A person who is intermediate between the two traditional genders.
3. A person who rejects gender roles entirely.- Bisexual 4
An umbrella term for people who experience sexual and/or emotional attraction to more than one gender (pansexual, fluid, omnisexual, queer, etc.).
- Gay 3
The adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attractions are to people of the same sex.
- Gender Queer or Gender Fluid 4
An identity commonly used by people who do not identify or express their gender within the gender binary.
- Gender/Gender Identity 4
One’s internal sense of being male, female, neither of these, both, or other gender(s).
- IPEDS
Integrated Post-Secondary Education Data System used by the National Center for Education Statistics to collect and analyze data related to education in the U.S.
- Legal Sex Designation
The sex that is indicated on government issued ID, such as a passport, driver’s license or social security registration.
- Lesbian 5
A woman whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction is to other women.
- LGBTQQIAPP+ 4
A collection of identities short for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, aromantic, pansexual, polysexual (sometimes abbreviated to LGBT or LGBTQ+).
- Pansexual 4
Capable of being attracted to many/any gender(s).
- Queer 4
A term for people of marginalized gender identities and sexual orientations who are not cisgender and/or heterosexual. This term has a complicated history as a reclaimed slur.
- Same-Gender Loving 4
A term sometimes used by members of the African-American/Black community to express an alternative sexual orientation without relying on terms and symbols of European descent.
- Sex 5
Refers to a person’s biological status and is typically categorized as male, female, or intersex.
- Sexual Orientation 4
A person’s physical, romantic, emotional, aesthetic, and/or other form of attraction to others.
- Straight/Heterosexual 5
An adjective used to describe people whose enduring physical, romantic and/or emotional attraction is to people of the opposite sex.
- Transgender 4
An umbrella term for people whose gender identity differs from the sex they were assigned at birth. The term transgender is not indicative of gender expression, sexual orientation, hormonal makeup, physical anatomy, or how one is perceived in daily life.
- Trans Man 4
Trans man generally describes someone assigned female at birth who identifies as a man.
- Trans Woman 4
Trans woman generally describes someone assigned male at birth who identifies as a woman.
1 Genderqueer and Non-Binary Identities & Terminology. Genderqueer Identities.
2 LGBTQ+ Definitions. Trans Students Educational Resources.
3 GLAAD Media Reference Guide - Lesbian / Gay / Bisexual Glossary of Terms.
4 LGBTQI Terminology. LGBT Resource Center at UC Riverside 2003-2004.
5 Definition of Terms: Sex, Gender, Gender Identity, Sexual Orientation. American Psychological Association.