A modern policy in South Dakota that prohibits faculty and staff at state universities from using gender-specific pronouns in official correspondence also prevents Native American employees from identifying their tribal affiliation in a state with a long and violent history of conflict with tribes.
Two University of South Dakota faculty members, Megan Red Shirt-Shaw and her husband, John Little, have long included their gender pronouns and tribal affiliations in the signature blocks of their work emails. But both received written warnings from the university in March that doing so violated a policy adopted in December by the South Dakota Board of Regents.
“I was told I had 5 days to remove my tribal affiliation and pronouns,” Little said in an email to The Associated Press. “I believe the exact wording was that I had ‘5 days to correct the behavior.’ If my tribal affiliation and pronouns were not removed after the 5 days, administrators would meet and decide whether I would be suspended (with or without pay) and/or immediately terminated.”
The policy is described by the board as a elementary branding and communications guideline. It came just months after Republican Gov. Kristi Noem sent a letter to the regents railing against “liberal ideologies” on college campuses and urging the board, among other things, to ban drag shows on campus and “remove all references to preferred pronouns from school materials.”
All nine voting members of the panel were appointed by Noem. In March, she accused tribal leaders of profiting from illegal drug cartels and failing to properly care for children, leading to her being banned from land by most South Dakota tribes.
The change in South Dakota comes amid a conservative push to limit diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that are gaining momentum in state capitols and college governing boards across the country, with about a third of states taking some form of action against them.
Policies against the utilize of gender-specific pronouns focus primarily on students in grades 1-12, although some petite religious colleges have also restricted pronoun utilize. Houghton University in western New York state fired two dorm directors last year after they refused to remove gender-specific pronouns from their work email signatures.
Some fear, however, that South Dakota’s policies could be an intrusion of such efforts into public colleges and universities.
“Frankly, this is the first time I’ve heard of a public university choosing to use brand standards to discourage the apparently common practice of using pronouns and tribal affiliations in emails,” said Paulette Grandberry Russell, president of the National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education. “But given the current climate we’re in, I’m not surprised.”
Grandberry Russell called the conservative push to restrict transgender rights and diversity, equity and inclusion efforts a “testing ground” to see whether discriminatory laws will be tolerated.
“It’s a steady progression,” she said. “This is happening in the form of communication and branding standards. Is this going to be the next frontier in sugarcoating the realities of our differences?”
The American Association of University Professors, a university advocacy group, is not aware of any case in which another professor at a public university in the United States would be required to refrain from using his preferred pronouns in his official correspondence, said spokesman Kelly Benjamin.
“I can only say anecdotally that because I live in Florida and have seen what’s happened with all the anti-woke movement and the targeting of education here, I know this is an integral part of a longer-term agenda,” Benjamin said.
A spokeswoman for the University of South Dakota declined to answer questions about whether the university administration or the Faculty Senate were consulted before the regents adopted the policy, referring instead to the University Council.
Shuree Mortenson, a spokeswoman for the Board of Regents, said all six universities under the Board of Regents umbrella had the opportunity to review the policy, “but ultimately the Board of Regents made this decision.” She declined to say whether other faculty at any of the five other schools had received warnings not to utilize gender pronouns, tribal affiliations or other identifying markers, but defended the modern policy as providing “consistency to protect the brand.”
Mortenson did not answer questions about whether the inclusion of tribal affiliation in the official signature blocks of state universities had been considered by the regents before adoption or whether tribal leaders in the state had been consulted.
When the policy was announced to faculty in January, Little and Red Shirt-Shaw asked school administrators how the modern policy would affect tribal consideration.
“It was obvious they hadn’t considered that this would impact Indigenous employees,” Little said.
The United States had long attempted to eradicate Native American communities and cultures through war, assimilation, and other means before recognizing the tribes’ inherent right to self-government. For example, Native American children were torn from their communities and placed in Indian boarding schools, where students were systematically abused.
Red Shirt-Shaw said in social media posts that being told she could not include her tribal affiliation in her signature felt like another erasure of South Dakota’s indigenous people.
“Being able to share my tribal affiliation and gender pronouns signals that I am a human being who values the life experiences of others,” she said.
Both she and Little have begun listing their tribal affiliation and pronouns in the body of their emails, which the university currently allows.
The American Civil Liberties Union of South Dakota said it has heard from University of South Dakota faculty and students concerned about the modern policy. The ACLU is considering taking further steps to address the issue.
“Perhaps their intent was to suppress the use of pronouns in email signatures, but as is often the case with any restriction or suppression of free speech, there are always unintended consequences,” said Samantha Chapman, an advocacy manager for the ACLU of South Dakota. “There is also a component of double erasure here. There are a lot of queer Indigenous people in South Dakota.” ___
Associated Press writer Felicia Fonseca in Flagstaff, Arizona, contributed to this report.
